What goes down, must come up

I have to admit, I'm a soda junkie. Pepsi's my preferred beverage, but I love Jolt, Coke, Mountain Dew (especially the World of Warcraft varieties), root beer and a bunch more. But I've learned the hard way that it's a *very bad* idea to have a Pepsi at arm's reach while doing a demo. The reason? Carbonation makes you burp , and depending on how much you drank, you may be burping a lot. A second issue is that odd 'quasi burp', where your throat constricts because you can feel a burp coming, but it doesn't. Either of these makes you look less than professional, and you don't want to have various bodily noises distracting people from the message you're trying to deliver.

So, avoid the carbonated beverages for about 30 mins before you give a presentation. Have a bottle of room temperature water handy in case you need a drink. (If the water's too cold, it can constrict your throat, and that's a whole different problem. )

Once you've given your killer, burp-free presentation, crack open a Pepsi for me!