Michelle Lemmons in Entrepreneur Magazine

Seal the Deal
Negotiating can be difficult, but sharpening your skills in advance will put you on top.

By Aliza Pilar Sherman | Entrepreneur Magazine – May 2005

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2005/may/77238.html

Running a company requires many different skills, not all of which come easily to everyone. Is negotiating one of the skills that tends to be more challenging for women?

“Women have an easier time asking for something for someone other than themselves,” says Ronna Lichtenberg, president of New York City-based management consulting firm Clear Peak Communications and author of Pitch Like a Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed. “For reasons having to do with both nature and nurture, women also have a difficult time with self-promotion, which is what negotiation can feel like.”

Carol Frohlinger, a managing partner with The Shadow Negotiation LLC in Long Island, New York, which provides negotiation skills training for women, and co-author of Her Place at the Table: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success, sees additional challenges for women. “Many women have preconceived notions of what a successful negotiator does based on traditional male models–the ‘take no prisoners’ approach. And that approach to negotiation just doesn’t work for us. It isn’t comfortable.”

To illustrate the difference between how men and women perceive negotiations, Frohlinger asked a group of men and women to share their definitions of win-win. “The response I got from a man was, ‘Win-win negotiation is when you win, but the other party thinks he’s won’–a focus on the short-term result without much consideration as to what will happen when the ‘loser’ figures it out,” she says. Lack of negotiating skills can affect an owner’s reputation–and a company’s bottom line.

Says Lichtenberg, “Women often discount themselves. They say things like ‘You may have already thought about this, but . . . ‘ or ‘I probably shouldn’t ask you, but . . . .’ Women also may not do their homework about their market value, or may ask for too little to avoid how uncomfortable they feel negotiating.”

Lichtenberg notes that it can be particularly hard for women to negotiate with someone they like, because they’re concerned the negotiation may upset the relationship.

Michelle Lemmons-Poscente, 43, often has to negotiate as president of Dallas-based International Speakers Bureau, a $6 million company that provides speakers and presenters for special events, meetings, conferences and conventions. She recommends that, when you’re at a negotiating standstill, you come up with an entirely different deal, offering a fresh solution for both parties. Most of all, she believes it’s important to have confidence and not be afraid to walk away from a deal. “Don’t get emotionally attached to any deal,” she says. “Keep every negotiation in black and white–keep focused on the facts of the deal and what you want to walk away with.”

International Speakers Bureau Leading Change in Eqypt

Egypt’s iceberg is melting
By Alex Dziadosz

First Published 4/16/2008

CAIRO: The idea that a seminar based on penguins and institutional reform could play well in a desert nation whose ruling party symbolizes longevity almost as much as the pyramids may ring counterintuitive, but Bill Palladino will assure you it is not.

Last week saw Grand Hyatt hotel host the “Leading Bold Change Initiative,” two days of motivational seminars and lectures led by Palladino and based on Harvard professor John Kotter’s managerial parable about a colony of penguins struggling to deal with their eroding homeland. The Zad group, an Egyptian consultancy, sponsored the visit.

The lectures’ goal — apart, of course, from moving books — was to whisk away the crust of institutional stagnation, molding businesspeople into vital agents of change through a brightly-illustrated, eight-step method.

“Change is happening and it’s happening faster and faster and faster,” said Palladino. “If we don’t find methods to deal with it and constantly stay in front of it, it’s going to overtake us.”

“Our Iceberg is Melting,” the book on which the seminars are based, was itself inspired by Kotter’s earlier, lengthier text “Leading Change” — “very much a textbook,” in Palladino’s words. “It’s a long read,” he said.

Through colleagues’ urgings, Kotter was eventually convinced to distill the book into its large-print, best-selling format.

“The story starts with one penguin who doesn’t have much power in the organization — just a common penguin, if you will — who discovers the iceberg is about to crack,” said Palladino.

Throughout the 147-page narrative, a cast of neatly archetypal characters, including “The Head Penguin,” “The Professor” and the dashing but dim “Buddy” grapple with the quandary sparked by the briefcase-toting protagonist’s discovery.

“Rather than through a textbook that’s really meant for higher-level educated people that is sometimes difficult to read and difficult to extract things from, he created this parable,” said Palladino. “It pares down the core concepts in that big book into a little, funny book with pictures of penguins.”

ISB Worldwide, the management training firm that ran the seminars, has worked with Kotter for 10 years, in this program for the last two. Zad brought them to Cairo largely to inform their partners.

“Zad is designed to help businesses, but it became very clear to Greg and I that the vision of Dr Amr Fass, [Zad’s general manger], in bringing us here is not to change one business at a time, it’s to change Egypt,” Palladino said.

Although the ISB teams alter their routine even across regions in the US, Palladino said they were worried about cultural barriers before they arrived. After a few days, he said, he saw that the client’s zeal overwhelmed any issues they might have had.

“We didn’t have to get to know the culture, the culture got to know us,” said Greg Kaisar, an ISB representative. “They were impassioned by the content.”

Change is a perennial source of speculation in this nation where the president has held office for nearly three decades and the word “reform” pervades much economic rhetoric.

“Everyone we’ve run into sees a definitive need for the country to change,” said Palladino. “And it sounds like a lot of that need for change is about the culture of just laying back. And it’s encouraging to see so many people here recognizing that and wanting to play a role in it.”

Part of their sell is the idea of a sense of urgency — in fact step one in the eight-step process — something Egypt has in abundance as it reels from weeks of staple food shortages and the worst civil unrest in decades.

“Urgency is the key,” said Palladino. He said what’s happening around Egypt, like the Iraq War and the breakneck ascent of the United Arab Emirates, has fostered this. “Egypt looks over at Dubai and says, ‘why weren’t we the ones to do that?’”

Michelle Lemmons Bio

Michelle Lemmons-Poscente is the Chairman of ISB Global, LLC, a diversified leadership and educational services firm providing organizations worldwide with unparalleled access to the world’s best thinkers, educational programs, and corporate training offerings. She is also founder and CEO of its flagship company, International Speakers Bureau, a full-service speaker’s agency specializing in business, contemporary thought leadership, and entertainment headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

ISB’s clientele includes most of the Fortune 500 as well as multinationals, small businesses, governments, universities and NGOs around the world. ISB represents the very best authors, academics, celebrities, entertainers, sports-figures and subject-matter experts. Its international business is growing significantly representing over 20% of total operations. The Company recently opened offices in Dubai, and plans to have a presence in Asia and India by year-end 2008.

From companies looking to find the right speaker line-up for a upcoming conference to best-selling authors seeking to leverage their brands through productization and greater reach inside organizations, ISB has become a formidable player in connecting and growing leaders.

Michelle majored in Communications at Southern Methodist University before relocating to Hollywood to work in the film and television industry on programs such as Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Star Search and Supermodels of the World. In 1993 she founded International Speakers Bureau on the cutting-edge of the growing speaking industry, and has never looked back.

Dubbed as one of the “Top Female-Owned Businesses” in the U.S. by Bank One and recognized as one of the top-managed companies in the United States, winning the Sprint #1 Small Business Award (sweeping the categories Customer Service, Marketing and Innovation), International Speakers Bureau has become one of the largest and most respected bureaus in the world.

Recently, Michelle was featured on ABC’s, The American Inventor, as the Presentation Coach for the top 12 contestants

Within the past two years the ISB Global family of companies has grown to include a management firm, a corporate training and consulting company, and an event series.

ISB Management acts an agency for selected business thought leaders in much the same way CAA does for actors or IMG for sports personalities. The management firm handles about twenty best-selling authors and focuses on developing and commercializing their intellectual property, as well as coordinating their branding and market visibility.

On the corporate training front, Michelle has joined forces with several industry veterans who have been responsibility for the successful product development, sales and delivery of the offerings of several of the biggest names in the corporate training market over the past two decade. ISB Worldwide provides its clients best of breed branded training offerings in key business categories such as leadership, innovation, change, strategy, communications, performance management, sales and marketing.

The third addition to ISB Global is Leadership Shows, a live leadership event series appearing in fifteen US markets in 2007 and thirty in 2008. The executive team of Leadership Shows team created the speaking platform that elevated many best-selling business authors into “management rock star” status. Since the early 1990’s, they have produced over one thousand live events in more than forty countries, as well as the Fortune CEO Forum.

Michelle has held numerous international board positions including Vice Presidents of Education for Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization (YEO) as well as seats on International Association of Speakers Bureaus, Young President’s Organization (YPO) TACA Board – a Dallas arts fund-raising organization, The SMU Doak Walker Sports Lecture Series, and Meeting Planners International (MPI) as a Charter member.

Michelle is married to Canadian Olympic star Vincent Poscente and is the mother of three children.

Michelle Lemmons Stars in a Sprint Commercial

International Speakers Bureau Founder and Chairman Michelle Lemmons-Poscente is featured in a Sprint commercial after winning the Sprint #1 Small Business Award (sweeping the categories Customer Service, Marketing and Innovation).

Michelle Lemmons in Inc Magazine

The Accidental Bootstrapper

One way to start a business without spending a lot of money or agonizing over strategy is to follow Michelle Lemmons-Poscente’s example. Not that you could set out to follow her example; she started her company pretty much by accident.

Seven years ago Lemmons-Poscente was a struggling independent film producer in Los Angeles, scrambling for a second job to pay the bills. She answered a classified ad in Variety placed by two people–a humorist and a tax strategist–who were both looking for an agent to market them as public speakers. Although Lemmons-Poscente had no experience of the kind, she talked her way into the job. “Selling comes naturally to me,” she explains. She succeeded in booking several engagements for the tax strategist, earning an hourly rate plus commissions. Then in September 1992 she moved back to her hometown of San Angelo, Tex., to help care for her father, who was critically ill. Reckoning that she might still earn some bread money as a booking agent, she borrowed $1,000 from the tax strategist and bought a cheap computer.

Operating out of a spare bedroom in her parents’ home, she cold-called state associations and chain businesses, still hustling to cover expenses. “It’s a small town, so I could set up accounts,” she recalls. “If I had done this in L.A., they never would have printed my letterhead without my paying for it first.” To earn a bit of quick money, she gathered pecans from her front lawn for sale at a local farmers’ market.

Slowly, her work as a booking agent caught on–her first break was signing Charles Kuralt to speak at a Super 8 Motel conference–but she viewed the work as a way to make ends meet while looking after her father. In 1993, a few months after her father’s death, Lemmons-Poscente moved to Dallas. She kept a hand in the film business while frugally expanding her speakers’ agency.

In mid-1994, Lemmons-Poscente had her epiphany: “The real gem was right under my nose. I said, ‘I’m not in the film business. I’m in the speakers’ bureau business, and that’s what I enjoy.’” Now her company, International Speakers Bureau Inc., employs 20 people and projects it will make $7 million in sales this year to such customers as Sprint, IBM, and Microsoft.

Michelle Lemmons in the New York Times

May 9, 2004

Want a Big-Name Speaker for College Commencement? A Private Jet Sure Doesn’t Hurt

By BEN BERGMAN

The competition to land a big-name commencement speaker can be fierce, and is particularly tough for smaller colleges and those with little or no money to spend.

Some institutions choose to turn to talent bookers and pay five-figure fees for their graduation speakers. But others decide to rely on personal connections or inducements like honorary degrees, scholarship funds for favored causes and even exotic vacations and private transportation donated by friends of the college to lure talent to their campuses.

The choice of commencement speaker reflects not only a desire to inspire graduates to greater heights, but also to inspire alumni to contribute. Prestige, the thinking goes, accrues from a notable guest.

A sitting Supreme Court justice would be an enviable speaker for any major university to get. But Centre College in Danville, Ky., with just 1,050 students, landed Justice Sandra Day O’Connor this year.

How did this relatively obscure college get such a big name? Its president, John Roush, cited two factors: alumni connections and a private jet.

Justice O’Connor agreed to speak at Centre’s commencement on May 23 after she was asked by two of the college’s alumni whom she knows personally. ”She’s accepting because of the friendship she has with these people who care about their alma mater,” Dr. Roush said in a telephone interview. The college would not identify the alumni, saying only that one is a retired federal judge and the other is the chief executive of a Fortune 100 company.

As further enticement, one of the college’s trustees, who declined to be identified, agreed to lend Justice O’Connor his jet to make her trip from Washington easier. ”If you are looking for a way to close the deal, taking the hassle out of travel can be the thing,” Dr. Roush said. ”We have a long airstrip in Danville. We can get a jet in here with no problem. She will land five minutes from where she’s speaking.”

Queen Noor of Jordan will fly to Los Angeles to deliver the commencement address on May 16 at Occidental College, a 1,800-student liberal arts college. The college’s president, Theodore Mitchell, wanted someone who could highlight its growing international focus. One of the college’s trustees, Sarah Pillsbury, knew the queen from secondary school in Massachusetts.

”Sarah is the glue,” said Derek Shearer, a diplomacy and world affairs professor who helps the college find speakers. ”She can pick up the phone and call Noor.”

Before agreeing to speak, Queen Noor asked whether Occidental would be willing to establish a scholarship fund for Jordanian students. It was a request Dr. Mitchell said he was happy to meet. ”The scholarship fund will be a substantive outcome from her visit,” he said.

Larger and more prestigious universities sometimes rely on personal connections just as much. After 20 years without an outside commencement speaker, Oregon State University decided that it would have one this year to help make graduation day more memorable. The university’s president, Edward J. Ray, knew John Glenn, the former senator and astronaut, from when the two collaborated to establish an institute at Ohio State University. Mr. Glenn agreed to speak after Dr. Ray called.

The musician and activist Bono will headline commencement ceremonies at the University of Pennsylvania. An alumnus of the university, whom the university did not wish to name, knows Bono professionally and helped woo him. ”It was the end result of a very long process,” said Molly Roth, director of trustee affairs at the university. ”We are typically working on the actual selection process for 24 months.”

Justice O’Connor, Queen Noor, Mr. Glenn and Bono will not receive fees for their appearances. But some institutions that lack well-connected alumni or are particularly choosy turn to bureaus that can book most anyone, for a price.

”When someone can afford a nice sum it is much easier to negotiate with an individual,” said Michelle Lemmons, who is president of the International Speakers Bureau, a Dallas booking service that has worked with about 300 colleges and universities this year to help them find commencement speakers.

Speaking fees can range from $25,000 to $100,000, said Mike Garibaldi-Frick, president of the Speakers Platform, a booking agency based in San Francisco. Most speakers substantially discount the rates they charge colleges, universities and other nonprofit organizations, Mr. Frick said. He added that it was not uncommon for some of the most sought after speakers to demand private air transportation.

Those institutions that do not pay their speakers say that while this can make the process more difficult, it is worth the extra effort. ”It’s easier to shop from a catalog,” said Dr. Mitchell of Occidental. ”But I feel strongly that someone should speak at commencement because they want to speak to the class, not because their agent told them to.”

The University of Pennsylvania says it has no trouble attracting speakers even without paying them, simply by bestowing an honorary degree. ”It’s tricky because most of the people we invite are represented by speakers bureaus and command lots of money,” Dr. Roth said. ”The cachet of a degree from Penn entices them to waive their fees.”

Barring the college or university president’s worst nightmare of a last-minute cancellation, the process of finding speakers for this year’s commencement is over. But as the class of 2004 receives their diplomas, the job of finding a speaker for the class of 2005 becomes a top priority.

It is never too early to get started, especially at Centre College, where Justice O’Connor will be difficult to top. ”I’m already working on next year,” Dr. Roush said. ”We are trying right now to secure a novelist whose name you would know. We have friendships with people who know her. I’m also friends with her.”

Quick guide for women entrepreneurs – Special Report

Quick guide for women entrepreneurs – Special Report – includes related article on the prospects of women in a male-dominated industry

Debra Phillips

Woman’s World

With women launching businesses at nearly twice the national average, it’s clear there’s plenty of reason to be impressed with the entrepreneurial drive of what was once dismissed as the weaker sex. Yet now that the novelty has worn off – what, we wonder, could be more natural than a woman at the helm of her own enterprise? – it’s almost easy to gloss over the significance of some 8.5 million woman-owned companies in the United States.

We said almost. We’re not prepared to shrug in the face of accomplishment, however. Women entrepreneurs are a force to be reckoned with, now more than ever. Don’t let the apparent quiet on the affirmative-action front fool you: News flourishes in the community that is women’s small business. This particular brand of news, though, is of the personal, day-to-day variety. You know – the kind of story that’s your own.

“That first year [in business], I’d have nights where I’d [think], ‘What have I done? I’m going to lose my house; I’m going to lose everything,’ “says Laurie Kahn, 44, reflecting on her initial fears about the launch of Chicago-based Media Staffing Network in 1993. “But it’s been a wonderful experience.”

“I never thought I’d have anything to do with business,” echoes Heather Howitt, 30, who founded Oregon Chai Inc., a Portland-based chai tea company, five years ago. “But I’m so glad I’m doing this now because I can make a difference.”

A MATTER OF STYLE

Making a difference is what women entrepreneurs are indeed doing in today’s workplace. As chronicled by the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, flexible scheduling, employee autonomy and treating workers as part of the family are all innovations championed by women.

“We share the same vision,” says Michelle Lemmons Poscente, 36, explaining the rationale behind her titles-free, open-book management style at Dallas-based International Speakers Bureau Inc. Just how effective is this more democratic approach? Poscente’s company, which books celebrities as stellar as former president Jimmy Carter and comedian Jay Leno, recorded sales of $6 million last year.

Others make a difference by committing to socially responsible business practices (as is the case with Howitt’s multimillion-dollar Oregon Chai) and simply forming strong connections with fellow women entrepreneurs. Connecting, in fact, seems especially important for women entrepreneurs. “I think we have a kindred spirit,” says Kahn, who belongs to various support and networking groups.

Agrees Lemmons, “There is a need for women to share with their peers.”

 

MORE at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DTI/is_1_27/ai_53520543

Choosing the Right Speaker

Michelle Lemmons on Choosing the Right Speaker from Opportunist Magazine

Booking speakers becomes big business

Dallas Business Journal – by Mike Koller Correspondent

DOWNTOWN – Michelle Lemmons is a woman juggling the demands of growth — both as a wife and mother and as owner of the fast-growing International Speakers Bureau.

Since she launched ISB just over five years ago, Lemmons has seen the company grow from two speakers, whom she signed in 1993, to more than 15,000 professional speakers and entertainers who can be deployed across the world.

She keeps their names, areas of expertise, biographies and video clips in a vast, custom-designed database that makes her company the sixth-largest bureau of its kind.

From $16,000 in revenue that first year, ISB’s sales have soared to $5.8 million in 1997 and are on track to reach $6.87 million this year.

The company is one of the most successful among 700 speakers bureaus worldwide, managing professional speakers who command fees ranging from $500 to more than $100,000 per talk.

The scope of her success delights Lemmons, but it doesn’t really surprise her. It’s only a milestone toward her often-stated goal.

“When I started ISB in 1992, I knew that I wanted it to be the No. 1 speakers bureau in the world,” she says. “I also wanted to create an atmosphere that allowed us to be `real people’ who worked at warp speed and produced exciting results beyond our expectations.”

The task of managing a client base the size of a small city keeps Lemmons constantly on the hunt for skilled workers to add to her 20-member staff.

They, in turn, contract with luminaries ranging from former President George Bush and former Sen. Bob Dole to entertainers like Leann Rimes, Joan Rivers and Rich Little. Management guru Peter Drucker is on the ISB rolls, as is 1998 Olympic skiing gold medlaist Pickabo Street. The company also signs lesser-known experts in sometimes arcane fields.

Their expertise covers management, marketing, sales, economics, sports, technology and trends, politics and entertainment.

ISB provides speakers for events large and small, and for such local companies as American Airlines, EDS, Nortel, Texas Instruments, Sprint, Dr Pepper and Frito-Lay. Nationally, ISB has booked speakers for MCI, Chrysler, AT&T, Pacific Bell and Microsoft, to name just a few.

“We work in every industry,” Lemmons says, explaining that successful individuals are always in demand to share the secrets of their success.

Referring to St. Louis Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire, who just broke Roger Maris’ home-run record, Lemmons said, “We’re already getting calls on him.”

Despite her vast reserve of experts, Lemmons has had to find her own solutions to her perennial manpower shortage.

She said success has been so rapid that ISB constantly pushes the limits of office space and her workers’ ability to keep up with the workload.

Juggling tasks

On the day of this interview, Lemmons is juggling care of her newborn daughter, Alexia, who lies in a crib in her office, with a tour of ISB’s new offices near downtown.

Her staff bustles, finishing their unpacking from the latest move. The air clangs with the sound of power tools and swinging hammers as workers finish the office.

When it is done, the office will feature banks of television sets tuned to the news channels or connected to VCRs, and computers to pluck speakers’ names out of the database to fill a customer request.

Each ISB agent has a television and VCR in his or her own office — able to keep abreast of the latest developments and to quickly review a speaker’s videotape.

The office is really a kind of information warehouse that manages experts on all topics.

“We’re in the knowledge business,” Lemmons said. “In this business you have to be very well-rounded and to know who would be a good client for someone in their 70s, or for someone who grew up in the ’80s. You’re kind of a matchmaker. You have to know intellectually what they are excited by.”

Self-made woman

Lemmons’ is a quintessentially American story of a self-made woman, in this case one who began her business on a shoestring with borrowed cash in a bedroom in San Angelo. She nursed ISB along on faith and sheer will to become one of the top speakers bureaus in the business.

Lemmons says she still does not see any limits on growth over the horizon.

“We are in the top five bureaus in the nation,” she said. “Our name is out there.”

The beginnings of ISB came long before Lemmons ever strung those three letters together as her business moniker. It began when she left for California, after studying film at SMU, to break into the entertainment industry.

“I was always an entrepreneur trying to think of a way to make money,” Lemmons said.

She struggled in California, putting together the 1986 calendar Women of UCLA — similar to popular “hunks calendars” for women. She broke even on that project before getting involved in a start-up enterprise called California Tan, which made a sun tanning product that was sold to indoor tanning salons.

In the 1980s she helped produce segments on such shows as “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” and in 1991 she found herself producing an independent film “and going broke doing it.”

To pay her bills, Lemmons answered an ad by two businessmen trying to find someone to market them. Egon Vandenberg, a tax expert, and Donny Conn, a humorist, liked what they saw in Lemmons and hired her.

Soon after, her father became terminally ill and she returned to Texas in 1992 to help tend to his needs in San Angelo. Lemmons borrowed money from Vandenberg and Conn to purchase office equipment and her business was on its way.

She moved to the Dallas area after her father died to give the fledgling business access to big-city opportunities.

The right people

How does a small company maintain such rapid growth?

“If you want to grow a dynamic company, then establish standards and a vision for that growth at the very beginning,” Lemmons says.

ISB has five “core values” that are posted on the company’s Web site and are constantly communicated among the staff and clients. The No. 1 core value is caring for other people, and the No. 2 value involves having fun.

“Much of our success can be attributed to picking the right people and leveraging the power of the team,” says Lemmons.

Despite a corps of dedicated staffers, Lemmons’ appetite for good help is insatiable. She is looking for people with talent and a rock-hard work ethic.

Lemmons compares her office to an ever-bigger wheel.

“All the people in the wheel are the spokes, and we look for people who fit in as a spoke,” she said. “A spoke is what gives strength to the wheel.”

If they join ISB, Lemmons promises they are joining a successful venture.

“We want to become the No. 1 bureau in the world,” Lemmons said. “We believe we can do it; I really believe we can do it.”

ISB business plan includes having fun

Friday, June 18, 1999

Company honored for its commitment to creative sales and marketing style

Dallas Business Journal – by Lindsey Townsend Correspondent

DEEP ELLUM — Only a woman would have the guts to make her No. 1 business value “caring for each other as a family and a team.” Based on that kinder, gentler philosophy and an open-book management style, Michelle Lemmons-Poscente has turned a dream that began in a bedroom office into a multimillion-dollar speakers bureau for Fortune 100 clients.

“I think the reason we’ve been successful is that it consistently comes out that I care about the people here as well as the business. I really do believe that it’s because of caring that we’re moving forward,” she said. Founded in 1992 and now the sixth-largest bureau in the United States, International Speakers Bureau recorded revenue of $6 million last year and is projecting 1999 revenue of $7.5 million.

Not bad for a company that lists “fun” at the top of its value list, along with integrity, innovation and a client-driven partnership approach. ISB was recognized last year as the first-place winner of the national “Search for Small Business Success” campaign sponsored by Sprint Business. Its mission was to identify the top three U.S. small companies that demonstrate best practices in the areas of sales, employee productivity and customer satisfaction.

ISB was selected in part for its commitment to creative sales and marketing techniques, including a state-of-the-art multimedia Web page (http://www.isbspeakers.com). Surfers can download hundreds of 15-minute streaming video clips of available talent, search a database of topics and speakers and hear audio clips from ISB employees.

“We were the first in the industry to have video on our Web site and the Web has helped us find a tremendous amount of business. Around 25% of our business now comes from the site,” Lemmons-Poscente said.

ISB’s extensive speaker/entertainer database includes more than 15,000 speakers and experts on hundreds of topics, along with 3,500 videotapes that are available for client previews. Some perennially popular topics include leadership skills, dealing with change and inspirational messages.

“There’s an ongoing need there, because keeping employees motivated is a continuous process,” she said.

But the old-school style of featuring a talking head from the podium is no longer a hard and fast rule. For example, Bill Maher of the TV show “Politically Incorrect” offers a session in which company employees act as panelists while he facilitates a discussion centering on a key issue in the industry.

The team concept also is important at ISB. There are no dress codes or fixed lunch hours and very few offices and doors, a reflection of the open-management style that is the foundation of the firm’s philosophy.

“Everyone knows exactly what’s going on: how much the marketing materials cost, how much it took to move to the new building,” Lemmons-Poscente said.

Employees vote on decisions big and small, from how to attract new business to whether to bring in a water cooler. The traditional hierarchical pyramid has been thrown out thrown out in favor of a flattened-out family model.

“I have a swimming pool, and a lot of times in the summer I’ll come home and there will be employees hanging out in my yard,” she said. “We’re friends, at and away from the office.”

ISB is planning to expand from a knowledge and entertainment source into publishing and distribution of that information via books, CDs and videotapes. But the company will remain firmly tied to its Texas roots.

“We want to become the main home base for representing local talent here in Texas. My goal is to be No. 1 in the industry in the next five years and to have instant name recognition, like Coca-Cola.”

Speakers bureau grew by twos

Friday, January 26, 2001

Dallas Business Journal – by Christine Perez Staff Writer

DEEP ELLUM – Michelle Lemmons, owner of International Speakers Bureau, has grown her business – and her family – since we last profiled the successful entrepreneur in September 1998’s Growth Strategies section. Lemmons launched two new divisions under her ISB Media umbrella company and gave birth to two children.

“We now have three under 3,” she said.

Revenue has expanded, too, from $6.8 million in 1998 to $8.5 million in 2000.

The two new divisions are a talent agency, to help create brand names for the speakers it hires, and a literary agency, to help create the books, audiotapes and courseware its speakers develop.

The latest news at ISB, though, may be the biggest: It has developed a package program that uses technology to take a speaker’s message deeper into an organization.

“We’ve been working on this since August of 1999, and we’re finally finished,” Lemmons said. “No one else is doing this.”

The program starts with 15-second to two-minute video vignettes that are e-mailed to attendees on a daily basis prior to the program, to get people familiar with the speaker. Following the presentations, attendees use interactive courseware through the Internet or corporate intranets.

“With the multiple experiences, the message becomes more ingrained into their thoughts and actions,” Lemmons said. “People will continue to get the information through articles, newsletters, chat discussions, and pretty soon, we’ve created a community around the message.”

Despite adding literary and talent divisions, Lemmons has no desire to expand her company to the coasts.

“You’d be surprised at what we’re able to attract specifically because we’re in Dallas,” she said. “Dallas is a hub for Fortune 500 companies, so keeping up with what’s going on with companies here really helps us keep a pulse on hot new topics and trends for our authors.”

ISB’s local clients include Dr Pepper, EDS and Blockbuster.

For Michelle Lemmons, everyone’s the boss

Friday, September 20, 1996

Dallas Business Journal – by Jesse Hall Correspondent

LAKEWOOD — As rare as is the success Michelle Lemmons has had since launching her own company four years ago, the firm itself may be even more exceptional.

Lemmons has used an uncommonly inclusive, familial management style in growing Dallas-based International Speakers Bureau Inc.’s annual revenue from $250,000 in 1993 to a projected $3 million-plus in 1996.

She’s asked for her employees’ input on decisions large and small and allowed them to keep their own hours, dress as they like, even bring their pets to work. They have responded by turning ISB into one of the nation’s busiest booking agencies for celebrity speakers, set to expand overseas and branch into video and audio publishing.

” `Open-book management’ is the management philosophy,” Lemmons said, quoting management expert Jack Stack’s name for the technique. “Everybody knows everything about the business, and they’re all part of the business.”

The philosophy extends even to ISB’s balance book. “My employees know how much everybody is making.”

Lemmons is president of the 10-employee firm, which she started with a “diamond-studded Rolodex” left over from a career in television production in Los Angeles. But she says she doesn’t like titles because they draw away from the sense of equality she’s tried to instill. She has no office, working instead at a desk alongside account executives.

“We really try to leave egos at the door … we don’t have plaques on the wall that say `Vice President of Marketing’ or whatever, because we’re a team,” she said. “I mean, we vote on things like, `Should we bring in a water cooler?’ “

By asking for opinions on everything from office decor to new hires, Lemmons has tried to make ISB a comfortable place and a place employees care about. Today, ISB boasts a database of more than 15,000 speakers available for conventions and meetings, and the firm has booked engagements around the world with names like Jimmy Carter, Jerry Jones and Walt Disney Co.’s Michael Eisner.

“The No. 1 thing, and most important thing to me, has always been to have fun,” she said. “I think we’ve grown — and will continue to grow — because this is almost home away from home, a place where people can’t wait to come in to work.”

If it all sounds too good to be true, Lemmons admits her management style didn’t work in ISB’s early days, when she had to fire the bulk of her staff, including a family member. Lemmons said her mistake then was with her too-lenient hiring process.

“The hiring process is terribly, terribly important,” she said. “I first hired people I liked, who were personable and eager. Now I give tests.”

Lemmons said maintaining discipline in the firm is actually easier in a close, familial environment, because the open environment facilitates communication and makes it easier to spot potential problems before they develop.

“We have to have discipline in the office, because in order to get to where we want to be, we know we have to work,” she said. “It might sound like I’m extremely lenient about letting someone come in at 10, or leave at four, or take a vacation. But that doesn’t help us reach our goals.”

According to ISB account executive Jay Kemp, who frequently brings his dog, Maggie, with him to work, the speakers bureau has allowed him more professional growth than previous jobs by involving him in every facet of the operation.

“There are no boundaries, none at all,” he said. “Every office has rules, and I guess this office has rules, but I don’t know what they are.”

Kemp said he hopes to eventually move out of sales and into management with ISB, where he feels more like a partner than an employee.

“We’re very, very close, we’re a family,” he said. “And just like any family, you have disagreements … it’s happened before, and it’s not comfortable when it’s happening. But the underlying thing is we know Michelle wants us to be successful, and the company to be successful. And she knows we’re along for the ride, because we helped build it.”

Though the lack of an executive hierarchy at ISB might seem to take away the incentive for achievement, Kemp said the opposite is true, because the bureau has traditional incentives like sales commissions and goal-related bonuses.

Also, he said, ISB’s open environment gives credit where credit’s due more often than traditional business bureaucracies with layers of management and supervision, boosting morale and creating a new incentive for good work.

“In other jobs that I’ve had, you go in and work hard but you may not get the credit,” Kemp said. “Everything’s open here and everyone knows what everyone’s doing. People need a pat on the back. Sometimes that’s better than money.”

Good morale also benefits the employer, said Jim Belew, managing partner for accounting firm Belew Averitt L.L.P.

“You try to get people more involved in what they’re doing from day to day, more than just coming in and punching a clock,” he said.

Bob Lynch, who founded and teaches at the University of Dallas Graduate School of Management, said Lemmons likely will find it difficult to maintain ISB’s open environment and management structure if the firm continues to grow.

“It almost has to be done in a small business. There’s just not time to get everybody in on every decision (in a bigger firm),” he said. “There will still be large, bureaucratic structures for a long time, whether people like to live with it or not.”

Joan Brett, an assistant professor in the organizational behavior department of Southern Methodist University’s Edwin L. Cox School of Business, said many larger firms that create teams don’t see increased productivity because they change the employee culture without changing the management culture.

“They (management) put people in teams, but they don’t act like teams themselves — they’re competitive, they have rivalries,” she said.

Brett said a firm like ISB could maintain its management structure while growing by creating teams of representatives to vote on issues, rather than polling every employee. Hiring the right employees will become even more important if Lemmons’ firm is to keep its open environment as it grows, Brett said.

Lemmons said she wants to export her “open-book” policies to new offices ISB plans to open in London and Tokyo with the help of investors.

The sharing of information and responsibility can get more out of workers while boosting their morale, but there are also new problems that may arise when employees are encouraged to think for themselves, according to Belew.

“You try to give them the freedom to make decisions, but, from a management standpoint, you have to protect them — don’t let them drive the car over the cliff,” he said.

Lemmons, an SMU graduate who started ISB in Dallas to be close to family and take advantage of the area’s location as a travel hub, said communication and friendship among co-workers breeds dedication, and dedication always gets results.

“Typically, CEOs and company presidents have been taught not to get too close to employees,” she said. “I go in exactly the opposite direction.

“I don’t know if it’s right or wrong, but it’s worked for us and continues to work for us.”

Michelle Lemmons in Time Magazine

Dotcom Disaster Lectures

Sunday, Mar. 18, 2001 By CATHY BOOTH THOMAS

PRODUCT Speeches by humbled Internet wizards about their mistakes–and how to avoid them

HOW IT STARTED The NASDAQ nosedived, and FORTUNE 500 execs were looking for some answers

JUDGMENT CALL Demand should go up as long as the stock market keeps going down

They may have lost millions of dollars for investors and helped foment the market downturn, but dotcom dropouts are in demand on the speakers’ circuit. The phones are ringing for executives from Internet losers such as Yahoo and Priceline.com–if they dump their success stories and share their woes. “In the past we didn’t bring up failure. Now we make it a highlight of speeches,” says Michelle Lemmons-Poscente, head of the International Speakers Bureau, based in Dallas. “The best way to learn is by someone else’s failures, and if there’s drama involved, all the better.”

Lemmons-Poscente says she noticed the speakers market shifting about five months ago, when FORTUNE 500 execs started calling to see if Jeffrey Hoffman, CEO of Priceline.com’s Perfect YardSale website, would talk about why his company’s stock had tanked. His speech, “Riding the Dot Com Roller Coaster: The Priceline.com Story,” has become a lecture-circuit mainstay. Gary E. Hoover, above, founder of Bookstop superstores and Hoovers.com, the Web’s largest provider of business information, gives talks about his failed TravelFest superstores. “Now people want to know how to deal with layoffs,” he says. Hoover insists he’s not just a gloomy Gus; he focuses on how to bounce back too. But at $10,000 to $15,000 a speech, sharing the pain isn’t bad business.

Knowing What Counts – Profile of Michelle Lemmons

Knowing What Counts – Michelle Lemmons-Poscente

Originally appeared on Office.com

by Aliza Pilar Sherman

Understanding what is important in life led Michelle Lemmons-Poscente from the glitter of Hollywood to a more grounded life, and business, in Texas.

When Michelle Lemmons-Poscente left “Hollywood” to care for her ailing father, starting a business was the furthest thing from her mind. She was, however, eager to get away from the “different set of values” she had observed in Los Angeles during her eight years in the entertainment industry, including a stint as a segment producer at “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.”

In 1993, while caring for her father, Lemmons-Poscente ended up starting a business – International Speakers Bureau (ISB) – out of a back room in her father’s house. The main impetus for starting a business at that time was to have the flexibility to work from home and be there for her father. The idea for starting a speaker’s bureau grew out of a part-time job which she had landed prior to leaving Los Angeles, a marketing and sales position promoting two authors and booking their speaking engagements.

Says Lemmons-Poscente, “I knew that a speakers bureau would depend solely on me and whether or not I could make money. I knew I could make enough money to survive, and at the time, that was all I cared about.” To get her new business off the ground, Lemmons-Poscente made a lot of cold calls. To keep additional money coming in while she built up a clientele, she also picked pecans off her front lawn and sold them at a local farmers’ market.

Ten months after she arrived in West Texas, her father died in her arms. “I was very grounded by the experience,” says Lemmons-Poscente. “It doesn’t matter whether you drive a Mercedes or BMW, but if you died today, would you have any regrets? I can honestly say that, as a result of the decisions I have made since my father’s death, I would have no regrets.” Lemmons-Poscente felt she had been able to put things into perspective by putting her family first.

THE BIRTH OF A BUSINESS

To initially get ISB off the ground, Lemmons-Poscente had borrowed $7,500 from the two men she was promoting part-time. During the first year of business, her big coup was booking Charles Kuralt as a spokesperson for Super 8 Motels. That year, she was able to pay back the loan from her former employers.

Despite the steady growth of her business, it wasn’t until after her father passed away that Lemmons-Poscente began to think of her business as a full-time career. She moved International Speakers Bureau out of her father’s home into an office space in Dallas and began hiring staff.

In the early days, Lemmons-Poscente admits that one of the most difficult things about growing ISB was not having any past experience building up a company or dealing with the financial side of a business. “I brought in people who were much more numbers-oriented than I am,” explains Lemmons-Poscente, noting that she acknowledged her strengths and her weaknesses, then tried to hire a team that could make up for her weak areas. She also hired a business coach for herself and joined Young Entrepreneurs Organization to help fill in the missing information and resources she needed to take her company to the next level.

Currently, Lemmons-Poscente feels her greatest challenge has been going from a business that is entirely her own to having others working with her. Growing from 22 people to 32 people, for example, was a major leap for her as a leader. “Everyone wants to get a piece of me, and there isn’t enough time for everyone,” Lemmons-Poscente admits. Setting up an extra level of management was crucial to managing her company’s growth. Another important lesson was learning how to give each individual employee the opportunity to grow and concentrate on their strengths.

Giving people an opportunity within her company is one of Lemmons-Poscente’s secrets to successful business growth, and she points to a receptionist who quickly moved into the marketing department and another individual who moved from working with one speaker to running the entire department that represented ISB’s exclusive speakers. Lemmons-Poscente prides herself in ISB’s commitment to giving opportunity to each employee, a strategy that has fostered loyalty amongst her team.

STRENGTH, GROWTH AND SUCCESS

Lemmons-Poscente’s vision for ISB is much greater than simply maintaining its standing as one of the top speakers bureaus in the country. Innovation is key to her entrepreneurial effort, and she recently incorporated ISB Media Ventures, with International Speakers Bureau becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of the newly-formed parent company.

She also formed entirely new division of her business called ISB New Media, a cutting-edge, interactive media solution for her clients. Now, corporations can do more than just hire ISB speakers to present in-person to their employees. They can also order voice emails or short online video clips that contain insights and daily business thoughts from well-known ISB speakers and provide them to their employees on an ongoing basis.

With the development of the parent company and new media arm, Lemmons-Poscente is clearly enhancing what was initially a traditional speakers bureau business model based around commissions. She is constantly exploring new revenue streams, particularly those that utilize the Internet and digital technology.

Lemmons-Poscente attributes her vision for ISB partly to her days in the entertainment industry where she was always forced to be both entrepreneurial and creative in order to find and land the next producing job. She also feels that technology is a great catalyst for creativity because whatever idea you come up with in your mind can become reality by pushing the technology envelope.

When looking back at the humble beginnings of her business and the challenges of starting a business while caring for her father, Lemmons-Poscente realizes that it took a lot of inner strength to persevere. “You dig deep within for your strength and, sometimes, you don’t even know you have it. But you find the strength because you have no choice.”

Today, in terms of balancing her home and work lives, her advice is to go with your gut, that is, if something doesn’t feel right in the gut, then don’t do it. Recently, Lemmons-Poscente had to put her own advice to the test when she had to go to a crucial meeting and her 3 year old son fell ill. The thought of leaving her son to go to the meeting didn’t feel right to her so she stayed home. Her son was much happier having her nearby, and the meeting went on without a hitch, even without her there. Learning that her company could function and grow without her constant presence was yet another lesson that has helped Lemmons-Poscente guide her company’s growth and trust her team.

ISB’s continued growth has caused the business to move its offices five times, but the company has finally settled into a spacious loft-like space in Deep Ellum, an artsy part of downtown Dallas. Even though they are once again outgrowing their space, this time they are expanding onto another floor in the same building. ISB now employs 32 people, has a database of over 15,000 speakers and experts, and project revenues this year of $16 million for International Speakers Bureau and $20 million overall for ISB Media Ventures.

“The key to our success has been articulating a very clear vision in which everyone is invested,” explains Lemmons-Poscente. “It’s not me that has made this business successful; it is the strength of our team.” Lemmons-Poscente view of her company’s success and the value of her team is echoed in ISB’s Number One business value which states that they have “caring for each other as a family and a team.” Because as Lemmons-Poscente puts it: “Family is what counts.”

 

Michelle Lemmons article for the Kaufman Foundation

 

Negotiating Both Sides of the Deal

 

Michelle Lemmons-Poscente, Founder and President, International Speakers Bureau

As founder and president of International Speakers Bureau (ISB), I am in a somewhat unique position to work on both sides of a deal. I am the third party that ensures the interests of both the client (a company) and the talent (a speaker or entertainer) are met. The fact is negotiating is a daily and vital occurrence in our company. As I make sure ISB makes its margins, the deals actually become three-dimensional, negotiated transactions where we work to ensure everyone comes out a winner.

Our Key to Successful Negotiations

The key is having a thorough understanding of the product we sell: our talent. We need to know in a detailed and honest way what the talent can and cannot do, what they are willing and not willing to do, and what they will accept in return. So we spend a lot of time getting to know them and understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and to some extent their personal situations. We become very interactive with the talent, frequently experiencing them live to get a feel for what they really have to offer.

On the buyer’s side, we must have a clear understanding of what the client is asking for and what they truly want and need. These often can be two very different things. For example, a client tells us that they want someone who can motivate their employees. We dig deeper and discover the client really is trying to sell a new product and needs high attendance at their event. Thus, a highly recognized name or talent could provide the large draw needed to meet their event goals.

As experts in this field, it’s our job to know which talent can delivery what the client needs. We work to pull the right information out of clients and to uncover the true answer to what is wanted versus what is needed so that we can recommend the best talent for the job. This all helps us later when we’re negotiating the details of the deals.

For instance, the client’s budget may not match up with what is determined they truly need. They tell us their budget is $10,000. But we then tell them that to get what they need, it will cost $14,000. Next it becomes a matter of finding ways to add value for the client so they feel justified in spending the extra money required to get the most appropriate talent. For the difference in the client’s budget and the actual fees, we might negotiate to provide a separate meeting with top management or some other special appearance or book signing as part of the deal. However, we’ve learned that we can only up-sell effectively if we know the talent well and understand the added value they are able and willing to provide to the client.

In Roger Fisher and William Ury’s seminal book on negotiating, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In, the authors identify a strategy I have long worked to adapt. Prior to serious negotiations, for example, the authors discuss three stages of negotiations from beginning to end: analysis, planning, and discussion. The analysis and planning stages are what we undertake in so many situations. For us to have a successful negotiation, we need a clear understanding going in of what our clients are asking for and what they truly want.

Making Expectations and Terms Unequivocal

While spelling out every detail is critical for any deal, it is especially important when the deal is not clear-cut or when there are add-ons to achieve that extra value for the client. The expectations and terms must be unequivocal. One can never put too much information in writing. We must make sure we’ve thought through every possibility, outlined every expectation, and provided a tremendous amount of detail around those expectations.

Sometimes our negotiations can take on rather interesting and challenging terms. For example, we have had to negotiate that talent use a certain product exclusively while he is in town speaking on behalf of the client. Or we might negotiate that the client provides the talent with the very first of what is a highly prized or sought-after new product it is getting ready to launch. In such cases, the client might in exchange be able to get the talent for a reduced fee. We even occasionally do barter deals whereby in exchange for the talent’s appearance, the client provides the talent with a major product. This is where really knowing the talent and knowing the client comes into play. Knowing precisely what you can and cannot negotiate is the real strength of effective deal making.

Probably the most important aspect of working as the middle person is ensuring that everyone walks away happy. That means making sure the desires and expectations of both the talent and the client are clearly defined and effectively met. And for ISB, that translates into repeat business. We don’t want to simply negotiate one-time deals; we want to continue to work over time to provide ongoing opportunities for talent and to help clients implement strategies to reach their goals throughout the years.

As William Ury notes in his article in this Collection, “Traditionally, negotiation had a ‘win-lose’ quality to it; it was seen as just another form of warfare. Increasingly, however, people and organizations are searching for methods to arrive at solutions for mutual gain.”

Through my experiences as an entrepreneur and now a veteran negotiator, Ury is absolutely right in asserting parties can negotiate for mutual gain. The old ways of negotiations, in which parties considered themselves almost enemies to each other, are over. All told, I think we at ISB have learned by doing that negotiating is not just an inevitable part of our lives, but a welcome part of enhancing our professional and personal well-being.

Michelle Lemmons and International Speakers Bureau featured in the Dallas Morning News

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, 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.

“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.

Dallas Morning News May 6, 2007

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!