Turn Me on

Turn Me On is a journey into how to give great presentations and to light a fire for your audience. This book is an easy to follow guide that brings the best of more than 40 years of combined experience between the 2 authors. When you master the skills in this book, you will ignite the passion, build the drive, and inspire positive action in the people that you are in front of. I remember the early start that I had. My father is a Methodist Minister and I used to go up on Saturdays to listen to him enthrall even the very pews that people would be sitting in the next morning. I loved how captivated I felt when I was in the congregation. I loved listening to people on Sunday mornings when they would shake his hand after the service and tell him that they felt like he was speaking only to them. The amazing thing to me was to hear 20% or more of the congregation say the same thing. At the age of 4, I would organize my cousins into an audience and would deliver an address about the importance of, well anything that I could think of. I remember dressing in a military style uniform. I loved the feel of being in front of people. Fast forward to Jr. High where I was afforded the opportunity to compete in Impromptu speaking. Having had the opportunity to hear my dad and a host of other friends that he had brought in over the years to speak, I was filling my stage presence and was able to win a competition with a speech on how to start a business, which I wrote in 2 minutes prior to delivering the 5 minute speech. What I learned in those early years is that people want to see your speech more than they want to hear it. They want to feel something in a world where we have often become too numb. I am not sure what it really feels like to be terrified of speaking in public. Because of the pushing of my father, I had lots of opportunity to overcome that fear before I was able to be smart enough to know that I should be scared. Speaking, particularly when you are turning the audience on, lighting their fire, or jazzing them up, is an artistic exchange of energy and passion. Great speakers are as dependent on the audience as they are on their materials. As Mike said, we have had a great time putting this together, remembering our journey to living into our stage presence, and mapping out the essence of what has allowed us to be invited to speak around the country and at times in foreign lands. --Jody Holland