Mike delivers the same talks hundreds of times by adding 1-2% new material each run while keeping the core structure intact. He's internalized the pacing so well he can observe himself presenting. A joke about his hometown, Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, which he rebrands as "Hilly Puddles," shows how small relatable moments re-energize audiences.
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.
