Mike delivers the same programs hundreds of times by mastering the rhythm and pauses so well he can step back and observe himself. He adds 1-2% new material each time to test ideas, and uses a recurring joke about his hometown, Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, to connect with 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.
