Professionalism is an engagement killer

If you're a professional, there's a 99.5% chance you act "professionally". I mean that in the sense that there's a collection of airs and graces, customs that you follow, things you definitely do (or don't do) in order to project the image you need to project to ensure your considered worthy of the trust (and money) of your clients.

The customs of professionalism evolved naturally, of course. No-one ever sat down to design them, and that means some of them are less useful than they might seem. Some are actively deleterious to the success of your business or practice.

One place professionalism absolutely acts counter to your interests is when you are public speaking. Almost every highly professional consultant/lawyer/accountant/researcher is utterly BORING when public speaking.

They're a cold, humourless, emotionless cardboard cutout of a human being stapled to the back of a lectern. Almost without exception, professionalism leads to boring, disengaging presentations that achieve little-to-nothing. Put simply, professionalism removes every aspect of you that is unique and interesting, which is everything about you that we should actually want to see when you're at the front of the room.

When you're presenting, you're not supposed to fit in. Stand out.