As many of you know last month I was privileged to speak at the National Achiever's Congress, thanks to the generosity of Richard & Veronica Tan and the entire Success Resources team, in Malaysia & Singapore. I had the honor of sharing the platform with Marketing Guru, Jay Abraham, Robert Kiyosaki's Commercial Real Estate Advisor, Ken McElroy, Dr. John DeMartini, Peter Ho and Ron White. I am in love with learning and was thrilled to benefit from the wisdom and energy everyone contributed at NAC 2005.

I talked about and demonstrated with volunteers from the audience how to warm up the body and the voice, release nervous tension, and how to make words come alive. My favorite part of the presentation was teaching people that intensely disliked their voices and lacked confidence to sing onstage in front of audiences of thousands in both Malaysia and Singapore.

Warming up is essential to a vital and fluent presentation. This question was asked by Bob Mittelsdorf at an Asia Professional Speaker's ~ Singapore Association meeting and again at a workshop that I led for staff at Nanyang Technological University.

Question ~ What if I cannot warm up right before an important presentation?

Answer ~ If for some reason it is not possible for you to warm up immediately before a presentation, warm up in the morning as mentioned in the article above. If you can't verbally state your intention aloud in the room, you can mentally project your thoughts by consciously focusing your energy to send your powerful intention to specific areas of the room you are presenting in. (For example, the four corners and/or four walls - as in Tip 11.)

If I can't vocally or physically warm up in a room, I will excuse myself and head for a rest room where I can quickly tune up my voice, do a few stretches and shake out any tension in my body. (If you have invested in my Presentation Power video DVDs, you can simply choose do the tongue stretches, vocal lip flapping 'Brr' exercise, let out a few open 'aah' sounds or sighs and perform 1-3 lion stretches. An explanation of how to do this is on DVD 4, Chapters 1-6. And a full run through of the Tension Release warm up is on DVD 6, Chapter 4.)

If it is still impossible for you to excuse yourself for a few moments, I would recommend performing some discreet tongue stretches with your mouth closed to warm up your articulators and some isometric exercises while sitting in your chair. (See tip 14) If you did a good warm up in the morning, you can trust that you will be prepared for your presentation.

What is important when nerves or anxiety kicks in before you speak, is to have something to focus on. You can focus on your body, your voice, your content, your presentation or even the friendly faces in your audience to transform nervous energy into excitement or enthusiasm.

I am a very proud mother of an 18 month-old daughter named Keysha. Because she's a toddler, and a fully self-expressed one at that, her voice is loud and her screams can often be heard from far away. Her tantrums are an indication that she feels unable to cope and are her way of communicating that she can't manage.

Whenever my daughter's circuits get overloaded, we take her to a window or out on our 29th floor balcony where she can take in the view. She immediately calms down, focuses on the magic in the world around her and forgets all about what happened only moments before.

Whenever you experience your emotions bottling up or like your electrical circuits will blow, take in your own view from the top or refocus your perspective to experience the beauty and wonder all around you. Your inspiration can come from anywhere.

If you focus on your breathing by allowing 6 to 8 deep breaths with your eyes open or closed, you will be amazed at how quickly you can release stress and transform your emotional state. (See tip 12)

If you still find it hard to refocus or calm down, another way to quickly shift your state is to listen to music you find peaceful. Some of my personal favorites are listening to nature sounds like rain forest, bird sanctuary or ocean sound recordings.

"The appearance of things changes according to the emotions, and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves." ~ Kahlil Gibran

"Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling." ~ Margaret Lee Runbeck

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." ~ The Serenity Prayer