4. Do not bring food, drink, smoking materials or drugs, gum, candy, other work, books, cell phones, radios or palmtops, small children, drunk in-laws, or live animals into presentation room with you, or anything that lights up, dings, whistles, rings, spins, smells, emits something, is a fire hazard, or needs to be fed.

You are there to listen to speaker.

5. Be an attentive listener.

6. Do not talk or whisper during presentation.

But stay with speaker. If something’s funny, laugh. If speaker asks for questions, have one. If something great happens, applaud. If you enjoyed presentation, applaud at end.

7. Dress appropriately and respectfully.

All professional audiences know to dress comfortably (you don’t want your belt jackknifing into your waist whole time), and to wear layers so you don’t get too hot or too cold, and ‘act out’ because you’re miserable. Few rooms are ventilated to any two people’s satisfaction.

“Appropriately”? When in doubt, wear nice slacks and a shirt, skirt or dress. Avoid jeans, a tux, don’t wear a cocktail dress, and save your cleavage, hairy chest and other sexual displays for another scenario.

8. Do not do anything that distracts either speaker or audience.

This would include but is not limited to: talking, whispering, wearing strong cologne, coughing, joking, shuffling your feet, rustling papers, tapping your pencil, humming, heckling, allowing your cell phone to ring (or, God forbid, talking on it), The presentation is not about YOU. If you have an uncontrollable need to attract attention to yourself, please get some coaching on Emotional Intelligence and give us all a break.

9. Keep your hands and feet to yourself.

And just like in grade school, if you tend to ‘get in trouble’ when you’re with Dougie, don’t sit beside Dougie.

10. Come prepared to make your contribution as "the audience."

It's an active role, not passive. It means arriving alert (skip double cheeseburger for lunch); having a positive attitude’ and doing what you can to make this possible for yourself, speaker, and others in audience.

©Susan Dunn, MA, Clinical Psychology, http://www.susandunn.cc . Author of “Presenting with Emotional Intelligence,” and “Nonverbal Communication,” to help you become a pro speaker – http://www.webstrategies.cc/ebooklibrary.html . Individual coaching, distance learning, the innovative EQ Learning Lab™, and the EQ ebook Library. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE eZine.

Suggestions for avoiding burn out: •Hate paying bills? Despise returning phone calls? Then why do it? Outsource those tasks that really drag you down and keep you from doing activities you enjoy. Consider hiring a virtual assistant. •Reward yourself. A major cause of burnout is feeling like your hard work is not being recognized or appreciated. If you work at home and are your own boss, you may not be getting kudos you deserve. When you land a big client, treat yourself to a professional massage or dinner at a nice restaurant. When you do something significant, print out a certificate of achievement for yourself and display it where you can see it.

Don’t allow yourself to be a burnout victim! Take action today or prevent or treat your burnout -- both you and your business will benefit.