Are your audiences affected and awestruck when you present? How can we go beyond informing our listeners to truly energizing and inspiring them? Here are 3 tips to set yourself on fire and Present Like A Pro!

1. Prepare the kindling. No great musician shows up and puts out a great performance without days and even years of vocal practice and experience. A speaker also needs to research, write, and rehearse to start from a solid, polished position. Most importantly, find a topic that you are sincerely excited to convey to others.

2. Light the match. You can be the top expert in your field and not move anyone unless you display passion. Let your excitement come through your voice, facial expressions and body language. Give the talk from your toes and the deepest part of your heart! Express your zeal through descriptive words and your powerful physical presence.

3. Emulate the embers. Create a powerful moment by turning down your volume and gestures. Be quiet, still and intense, as you share a significant point. The contrast of loud, impassioned speech with a soft projected and energized voice will add poingnancy and impact to your message.

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"Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn." -John Wesley

If you want to mesmerize and move your audiences, take advantage of the great resources from Present Like A Pro, including our new teleseminar on storytelling.

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Do you catch on fire when you speak? Are you as intensely passionate about your message as a rockstar giving a performance? What can you change in your preparation or body language to be even more powerful in your next presentation?

An audience will want to watch you burn, because they want to catch the excitement for themselves. Even though I don't care for the style of music on Rockstar INXS, I'm fascinated by the contagious passion of the performances. I love the feeling I get from hearing a song that was shared with incredible talent from the depths of someone's soul. As you learn to set yourself on fire and present like a rockstar, you will Present Like A Pro!

How do we handle days when we are not ourselves?

Often major presentations are not something that can easily be rescheduled. They need to be given on the appointed day whether we are feeling up to it or not. That was true for me on that day, and I knew I had to show up. The question was how was I going to show up?

How do we show up on days when we don't feel like doing our work?

On days when we're not ourselves and we don't feel like doing our work, we have a choice. We can either expect the world to act indebted to us for our sacrifice, our we can take the focus off of ourselves. The former will allow us to be victims of life (too busy, too little sleep, too much traffic.) The latter attitude requires more but is so much more rewarding.

When you aren't feeling quite right, just remember "Oh right - it's not all about me!"

When I have a talk on a day when I don't feel well, I remind myself of that. I'm not there to get something from my listeners, I'm there to offer them my insights, humor, and yes, even my heart. Whatever your work or types of presentations, you have the opportunity to give the same.

Of course, there is something in it for me.

It's amazing the exhiliration that can come - even on a sick or tired day - from putting others first. There is something healing and invigorating about helping and giving. There is a great reward in seeing people have that "Aha!" moment from the stage. I love that moment.

In those moments, I may still be hurting, but something in me is deeply touched and healed.