Erika Jones, CFO, CCTAProfit First Professionals · Certified Fractional CFO and Profit First Professional

Mike's Secret to Never Boring an Audience

5 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, the speaker explains how repeatedly delivering the same presentations—specifically on the books Profit First, Pumpkin Plan, and Get Different—has allowed him to internalize the flow to the point where he can observe himself while speaking. He emphasizes a disciplined habit of adding 1–2% new content to each repeat performance to keep material fresh. The speaker also illustrates the power of personal, self‑deprecating humor by sharing a joke about his hometown, Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, noting that the irony of the name (no mountains, no lakes) elicits audience laughter and becomes a recurring comedic element in his talks.

Chapters

I've delivered Profit First and Pumpkin Plan in parallel so many times, and also Get Different, those three, so many times that I can remove myself effectively from the presentation and almost be observing myself presenting, 'cause I know what the line is, I know the beat to hit, I know where to put the pause, and then I also allow myself to try new stuff. So I presented Profit First, say the 400th time, and every time I present, I'll be adding 1 or 2% new content just to freshen up and see if I can introduce something new. It was around the 400th time, 'cause I'm from a town in Jersey called Mountain Lakes, I asked the audience, I said, who here is familiar with Mountain Lakes? And of course no hands go up. So I said, of course. I said, no one's familiar with Mountain Lakes, but you are familiar with New Jersey. We don't have mountains and we don't have lakes. I live in Mountain Lakes. The greatest irony, if we were factually true, it should be called Hilly Puddles. I live in Hilly Puddles. And so people get a kick out of it. And that worked well enough that I started inserting it.