Dr. Rick Kirschner Speaker & Booking Information

Born in 1949, Rick Kirschner grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. A cartoonist and aspiring artist through his school years, he played guitar and sang in several local rock bands. Rick sold his paintings and other artwork to raise the money to go west in pursuit of a career in music. He found some success in Hollywood in 1968, but walked away from music as a career because "it wasn't fun anymore."

Returning home, he raised horses in Kentucky and worked as a manager in his family's business, attended Northern Kentucky University, earned his bachelor degree in Human Biology. Then he went on to a four year naturopathic medical school, National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon, graduating in 1981 as a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (N.D.).

While in med school, he was mentored by an area physician in therapeutic communication. In 1980, he and a friend designed and offered a training program to his fellow students called the "Magical Nature of Communication." Over the next few years, the training became very popular up and down the west coast with all kinds of groups, and served as the foundation of what was to become his speaking and training career. He graduated from National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland Oregon in 1981. That same year, he was a founding partner in R&R Productions, which offered and sponsored training programs in communication and healthy living. In private practice, he specialized in the treatment of stress related illness.

In 1986, he was invited to conduct training with CareerTrack Inc., then the largest training company in the world. In 1987, he gave up his private practice and went full time into the speaking and training field, earning top scores from his audiences. That year, he coauthored the CareerTrack bestselling audio program, How To Deal With Difficult People, which went on to make the Columbia House Top Ten Audio Training list. That same year, he was chosen by the Tom Peters Group to present the revolutionary In Search of Excellence training program to businesses all over the world. In 1988, he coauthored CareerTrack's bestselling video version of How To Deal With Difficult People. In 1988 and 89, he authored an audio and then a video program titled How To Find And Keep A Mate based on his live relationship seminar by that same name. In 1990, he authored a life-balance video program for CareerTrack called The Happiness of Pursuit. He left CareerTrack in 1992, and started his own speaking, training and consulting business.

1994, the first edition of his coauthored book, Dealing With People You Can't Stand: How To Bring Out The Best In People At Their Worst was published by McGraw Hill. That book went on to to a second edition in 2002, and is now an international bestseller, in two editions and 17 translations. It is used by a wide range of businesses and in colleges and universities to teach the basics of conflict resolution.

In 1997, CareerTrack published a coauthored audio and video program, Telecare: How To Provide Exceptional Service Over The Phone. That same year, Athena Interactive published the coauthored CD ROM, The New Leader: Dealing With Difficult People. (This was reviewed by Wired Magazine, which called the authors Gods of Amiability, and the CD won several awards, including Human Resource Magazine Top Ten Training Product, New Media Invision Award, and was an IABC Golden Flame Awards winner.)

In 1999, McGraw Hill published another coauthored work, Life By Design: Making Wise Choices In A Mixed Up World.

In 2003, the coauthored sequel to Dealing With People was published by McGraw Hill, Dealing With Relatives. In 2006, McGraw Hill published another coauthored work, Love Thy Customer, as well as Dealing With Difficult People, as part of the Mighty Manager series.

In 2004, he incorporated The Art of Change LLC, redesigned and began offering his collected knowledge and experience as The Art of Change Skills For Life™ speeches, training and coaching programs to businesses and other organizations. Programs offered include skills for positive change, influence and persuasion, teamwork and leadership, and healthy living.

In 2007, he authored two books and an 8 CD audio as part of a comprehensive program, Insider's Guide To The Art of Persuasion, through Talk Natural Press. That same year, he was hired by the Ashland City Council to conduct a five month series of training and coaching sessions designed to increase their leadership effectiveness. Word of this project made the national news, including a mention on Keith Obermann's countdown that named him the Second Best Person In The World. 2007 also marked his first publishing contract with Hyperion Press. His next book will be published by Hyperion in 2011, titled The Art of Click: Turning People Who Don't Get You Into People Who Can't Get Enough Of You.

Dr. Rick Kirschner is married to Lindea Bowe Kirschner (m. 1990), and he has one daughter from his previous marriage, Aden Kirschner, (b. 1977) who currently lives in Austin Texas, is a writer for an educational software company and is well known in the Austin Improv performance community.