Profile: Five Star Speakers & Trainers' strength is talk that matters

By ROY HARRYMAN

Special to The Star

But it won’t be in the form of an indecipherable note to a pharmacist.

Instead, Gardner’s Overland Park company, Five Star Speakers & Trainers, diagnoses the needs of businesses and organizations and recommends speakers who can address their challenges.

“We are business-growth doctors,” said Gardner, co-owner and chief executive officer. “They tell us what the problem is, and we help fix it.”

Five Star has booked more than 14,000 speaking, training and entertainment events attended by more than 3.5 million people since its founding in the late 1980s.

With 18,000-plus speakers and entertainers in its repertoire, it books more than 825 events annually.

A common denominator in nearly every event is that customers are seeking change.

“We help people and organizations grow and get better,” Gardner said. “We impact lives. That’s a pretty cool thing. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

Gardner grew up in the speaking industry, watching his father, Dick Gardner, work as a pioneer in the field in the 1960s and 1970s. Dick Gardner died in 1981, but one of his employees, Nancy Lauterbach, formed Five Star in her basement in 1988. Steve Gardner joined the company’s sales team in 1991. In 2005, he and business partner Paul Schmidt bought the firm.

The company has 21 employees and books events worldwide. Revenues have grown by 42 percent, to $7.1 million, since Gardner and Schmidt took over. Revenues come from charging speakers — who have nonexclusive agreements with Five Star — a percentage of their fees.

Philip Arbuckle, president of MeetingTrack, an event-planning company in Olathe, said Five Star’s recommendations had helped his firm evaluate the field of potential communicators.

“There are thousands of speakers out there speaking on any one subject,” he said. “It can take a long time to narrow that down.”

Arbuckle also said Five Star’s connections had saved him when emergencies caused last-minute speaker cancellations. Twice, the bureau found substitute local speakers who could fill in the same day.

“The turnaround was just incredible,” he said.

From a speaker’s perspective, Five Star’s worldwide network helps communicators connect with people who want to hear them, said Jim Welch, a former Hallmark executive and author.

“That enables me to focus on the message and on delivering for the client,” he said.

Gardner said many companies had refined their objectives for speaking events since the dotcom business downturn, with fewer booking “fluffy” or “feel good” motivational talks.

“Companies, I would argue for the first time, started … examining and asking ‘What’s the purpose? What are we trying to accomplish?’ ” he said. In the booming 1990s, “companies were stupid with their money. They just spent it because they could.”

Businesses that get the most out of a speaker are those that follow an event with practical application exercises, he said.

But not all events are about training.

Some are produced to thank employees or customers. Events also can create settings where money is raised or deals are signed.

Five Star’s speaker rates start at $2,500 and go up to $1 million for elite entertainers.

Sting, for example, charges $1 million for a private concert, while Jerry Seinfeld will entertain for $500,000. Welch charges $10,000-$15,000 per event.

Although some speakers’ fees can appear staggering, they don’t seem as exorbitant if an event can lead to a major business deal.

“Would you spend $250,000 to generate $4 million?” Gardner asked. “Most people would say yes.”

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