The Love Story That Built the Dynamic Aviation Empire - Mike and Melissa Stoltzfus

In this heartfelt episode of The Quest for Success Podcast, Mike and Melissa Stoltzfus take us on an unforgettable journey through love, legacy, and leadership in the aviation industry. From their unexpected love story to building a values-driven business, Mike and Melissa open up about what success truly means when it’s grounded in family, faith, and passion.
Mike shares the entrepreneurial lessons he’s learned from leading in a highly regulated industry, while Melissa offers wisdom on navigating change with grace and intuition. Together, they reflect on one of their missions: restoring the first Air Force One as a symbol of legacy and inspiration for future generations.

The conversation explores how listening to your inner voice, honouring your values, and cultivating resilience can shape both personal and professional growth. With insights on aviation trends, leadership, sustainability, and the power of partnership, this episode is a masterclass in building something meaningful - with heart and hustle.

Whether you're a dreamer, a builder, or someone looking to lead with purpose, this story will leave you inspired.

Follow Dynamic Aviation: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamic-aviation/

Key Takeaways
✅ Success is defined by family, purpose, and passion
✅ Listening to your inner voice leads to clarity and fulfilment
✅ Early life experiences shape resilience and values
✅ Entrepreneurship is a shared legacy that requires alignment
✅ Balancing legacy and innovation is key in modern business
✅ Personal relationships influence career choices deeply
✅ Building a strong team is the foundation of long-term success
✅ Innovation in aviation must work alongside regulation
✅ Faith and trust help navigate entrepreneurial uncertainty
✅ Passion and curiosity fuel continuous learning and inspiration

If you’re chasing a dream, writing your own legacy, or flying toward a new horizon - this one’s for you.

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Transcript

Dylan Pathirana (01:38.798)
Welcome back to the Quest for Success podcast. And thanks so much for tuning in once again. Today, we have special guests all the way from Virginia. We have Mike and Melissa Stoltzfus, who are the owners of Dynamic Aviation. We're super keen to sit down and have a chat with them today. And I'm really, really excited. Melissa is one of my very close friends. I met her at the Harvard Business School and Mike done OPM twice.

Dylan Pathirana (02:13.59)
So we want to explore and understand bit more and really thank you so much for joining us today.

Mike Stoltzfus (02:20.511)
Thank you so much for having us. It's such a pleasure. It is quite an honor and we're delighted to be together.

Dylan Pathirana (02:26.466)
Yeah, by the way, this is our very first episode with two guests. yeah, interesting. So this whole podcast is about success, right? And so we really need to understand something quite fundamental. And that is what does success mean to each of you?

Mike Stoltzfus (02:30.377)
Okay.

Mike Stoltzfus (02:45.257)
You go first. I think success at the end of the day, if you take everything away, money, job titles and all of that, will be your kids, your husband, your parents living next to you. And at the end of the day, I think if you move all of that, and it's what is left.

and be exactly what you feel like God has placed you in your life. I feel like I'm exactly where I am supposed to be. So for me, I feel pretty successful on that and having a wonderful husband, a loving husband. So it's a huge part. So.

Dylan Pathirana (03:35.522)
Yep. What about you, Mike?

Mike Stoltzfus (03:37.941)
So this is going be a fun conversation. So I believe in lot of kind of basic ideas. One of them is to always think opposite of the world. And so the world has a whole bunch of definitions around success. so mine might be slightly different, be opposite in some ways. And there's a spiritual element to it, but to simplify it, it is to listen to the still small voice.

Dylan Pathirana (03:40.248)
Yeah

Mike Stoltzfus (04:07.283)
And it's in a lot of ways, it's to obey the still small voice. There's a, call it conscience, call it Holy Spirit, call it the still small voice, call it your gut, whatever it is. For all intents and purposes, there is something that goes on within us, which isn't the voice that says do something stupid, right? It's like the opposite of the voice that does something stupid. so success for me is,

is being tuned in, hearing that voice, and then immediately, if I am supposed to immediately activate, then it's immediately activating on the still small voice.

Dylan Pathirana (04:48.622)
I like that. You are, you're right. That is quite contrarian to what most people. So there's some, some keywords I want to pick out there. So family kind of living by purpose and then also listening to the small voice is what success means. And I suppose in order for us to understand the people who are sitting in front of us today, we need to go back to the early Mike and Melissa. And so I want to get you guys to walk through your kind of early life and

Mike Stoltzfus (04:54.334)
It's awesome.

Dylan Pathirana (05:16.63)
how you think your childhood shaped who you are today.

Mike Stoltzfus (05:22.613)
I was born and raised in Brazil. My mother was a teacher. My dad used to work on a paper factory. But my great grandparents immigrated from Italy. So my family root is deep on, you know, phenomenal values like honesty and integrity and hard work.

And so you were just, your yes is your yes, your no is your no. So that has, I feel like has shaped me. Then we moved to the States. My parents want to give me a better education. They couldn't afford it in Brazil. So they really sacrificed a lot for me and my brother to be here and to have an education.

And that has taught me so much. And the idea that they're next door to me and my boys, like my dad wakes up my son every day to go to school and never miss a soccer game and never, so they're so present in my life. It's such a way to teach me how to teach my boys, like to honor.

Dylan Pathirana (06:35.566)
Beautiful.

Mike Stoltzfus (06:46.739)
you know your next generation and and and even my gay bro did i'd speech in high school and where he look at my parents and spoken portuguese in front of the whole years to say how grateful he was that they moved here and that they make sure that i wasn't the last one to speak portuguese because they spoke portuguese with the boys their whole life and that for me that that

Dylan Pathirana (06:56.067)
Wow.

Dylan Pathirana (07:09.678)
Wow.

Mike Stoltzfus (07:14.101)
that brought me a lot of resilience to move to a country that I didn't know the language, I didn't know what was next, brought me a lot of faith. I I had to trust a lot of the days because I didn't know what was gonna be the next day or people thought we're crazy moving here without knowing, but it was no plan B, it was just A, we're moving and we're doing as a family.

And so every time I have a challenge in my life, I look back and see God's footprint all along in my life and things that I thought was impossible, His hands was there. So every time I question about it, okay, how about now? I'm like, but He did it already. He brought me here. I met my husband.

all of this beautiful life that I never even imagined that I'll have one day, he gave it to me. I, my work is to trust and move forward, but that's, that's what I think it has shaped me.

Dylan Pathirana (08:25.006)
What about you, Mike?

Mike Stoltzfus (08:26.963)
So I come from an entrepreneurial family. My mom's side, my mom grew up, so we have a thing here in the States that it's a denomination of Amish. Are you guys familiar with the Amish at all? So basically, horse and buggies. So she grew up on a dairy farm and she was Amish until she was 13. And then they left the Amish church, went to the Mennonite church and they had cars then.

Dylan Pathirana (08:42.569)
Yeah, very high level, but yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (08:57.045)
My dad grew up in the Mennonite church, but what it is is that the Mennonites and the Amish, for all intents and purposes, are Swiss-German. And so, in fact, my dad's side is from southern Germany and my mom's side is from Switzerland. And so what goes along with this... So that's the first part. The second part is then the southeast Pennsylvania. It's what they call Pennsylvania Dutch, which are Swiss-Germans.

And so there's a DNA and there's an expectation that you would work your tail off. And there's a very, very cultural that you kind of play off the radar screen. You don't take credit. You give everyone else credit. There's a pretty strong spiritual element to it usually. But suffice it to say, so I grew up in this...

entrepreneurial home where all we talked about at dinner was business. Now we talked about Jesus some night, but it was basically business. so that was, so there's a, there was certainly a lot of nurture around business as a kid, but then because of this very strong Swiss German DNA, all I can tell you is that

I don't know, was probably 10, 11, 12, no, 11. And I basically started the entrepreneurial journey. I started with an acre of sweet corn. And then I took the church directory and I called, because I knew everybody, because my mom's very popular. And so I basically called everybody in the church directory and said, I will have sweet corn 10 days from now. Would you like for me to bring you two bushels? We will deliver it to your house and this is the price. And so...

I then for a whole bunch of years, basically by the time I was in high school, kind of the middle, midway through high school, I was farming 50 acres. had 20 head of cattle, basically started with nothing. And I, let me go back when I was either 10 or 11, I didn't know when I was 10, I rode in a tractor trailer and I was like, I'm gonna be in the trucking business. I'm gonna do it. When I'm 18, I'm gonna buy my own truck and then I'm gonna book trucking business.

Mike Stoltzfus (11:19.517)
And so a little bit more on that is that I...

If it had anything to do with an engine, I loved it. Like I bought my first go-kart when I was 12, bought my first motor cycle when I was 13. had anything to do with an engine, I loved it. If it had anything to do with, I didn't have any of the language at the time, but if it had any of the, it's basically create and deliver value, right? Like how can we create and deliver value? And for me, the heart was always there. The idea was how can I create something? How can I sweet corn or hogs or cattle or?

Dylan Pathirana (11:31.822)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Stoltzfus (11:58.421)
corn or hay or whatever. How can I produce something that somebody sees a value? And then how can I build a relationship with the customer? then how can I basically become their easy button? And again, all the language that I just shared, like this is the language we've learned later in life, but the heart was always there to, I'll use the language that I thought about then is like find some, find a customer, come up with something, find a customer, sell it to them, knock the cover off the ball, make it so that

They have such a phenomenal experience. Give it to them at a very good price. Increase the price if you can figure out how to create more value. Sorry, that's the new language. And I loved it. I loved it. And so the reason why I say this is that it's what I do now. I'm basically, I raced motocross when I was a kid and now I race cars. I try to come up with new ways to do stuff.

Dylan Pathirana (12:35.106)
Yep.

Dylan Pathirana (12:44.526)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Stoltzfus (12:52.499)
like a better model when I was a kid around all this stuff. It's what I do now. So I, no kidding, I am living out my childhood literally every day.

Dylan Pathirana (13:00.61)
Yeah, so that's awesome. I mean, we want to explore bit more on that journey and details, but I'm so keen to understand this. I wanted to ask this. How did you guys meet? Like, how did you meet each other?

Tell us the secrets!

Mike Stoltzfus (13:20.393)
Here's where were. For good or for bad, this entrepreneurial bug has always been an incredible driver. All through my 20s, lived in, I'm a pilot, flew airplanes all over the world, lived all over the world, and that was the focus. I was, I don't know, 31, 32, and a buddy of mine who at the time was a pastor.

of the same church that we were going to, we were both going to the same church, I basically, invited him to do some international travel with me. And I wanted to show him a bunch of stuff. He'd never been out of the States. And in my way of thinking, your worldview, you gotta spend a lot of time outside of the States, particularly in developing countries, in order to have a sense of how the world works.

Dylan Pathirana (13:48.193)
Alright.

Mike Stoltzfus (14:10.197)
And so we did that. We did this trip together. We were together for five days, took them all over the country, introduced them to a ton of friends. This is my pastor friend. And we're on the way home. So now we just had this five day international experience and we're on our way home. And I'm like, Phil, like, dude, I have got to find a wife. Like, at the time I was 31.

Dylan Pathirana (14:32.728)
You just realize.

Mike Stoltzfus (14:34.517)
No seriously, no no no, but I mean you know I wanted it but you're always you know it's priorities and 31 32 and I'm like I'm like dude I I don't know what to do but I've got to get on with it. No kidding almost this almost a quote it feels like a quote. No problem I have the girl for you.

Dylan Pathirana (14:58.008)
You

Mike Stoltzfus (14:58.013)
or the woman before you. And not many weeks after that, he introduced us. Not a weeks after that, we went on our first date and 11 months later we were married. And he came back, he's like...

Dylan Pathirana (15:10.987)
Wow.

Mike Stoltzfus (15:15.645)
Melissa, you need to meet this guy. And I was like, well, you don't understand. I just moved to this country. I'm like going to nursing school. I'm going to be the traveler nurse. I'm going to spend six months here, six months on the next whole, you know, hospital. I have nothing to do with getting married right now. Just forget it. Not doing it. I was like, no, you really need to meet this guy. And I'm like, fine. But you know, there is nothing like I don't want. I don't want that.

Dylan Pathirana (15:35.096)
Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (15:44.341)
I don't want to get married. That was my conclusion. Then when he introduced us at church, I walk and I saw Michael for the first time and I was like, oh my gosh, I can read his soul. And he freaked me out. I was like, this is scary. Because I was like, I don't want to, you know, I,

Dylan Pathirana (15:46.39)
Is it?

Mike Stoltzfus (16:10.133)
If it was the kind of marriage that I saw on my family, I didn't want it. I wanted something different, but I also didn't believe in fairy tale. So I was like, there's no such a thing. You're gonna have a lot of first sight and blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna marry this guy. That was it.

Dylan Pathirana (16:34.498)
The chemistry was there, right? Straight away. And how old were you then? Like that was your first year in US?

Mike Stoltzfus (16:37.172)
That's all.

Mike Stoltzfus (16:41.813)
I was here for a year. a year. Yeah. Yeah. I think you were 21. She was 21 or 22. So we're 10 years difference. Yeah. we were, we were, uh, no, no, no, we were, we were, was, I was 32. She was 22.

Dylan Pathirana (16:45.249)
wow.

Fresh.

Dylan Pathirana (16:54.542)
Dylan Pathirana (17:00.898)
All right. Yeah. Yeah. And then that's, that's your very first year in a U S and wow. No time to settle in straight into it.

Mike Stoltzfus (17:06.453)
That was it. That was it. And we've been married almost 25 years and wouldn't change a thing. So, very glad.

Dylan Pathirana (17:18.318)
Amazing, amazing story. Mike, I want to go back to your introduction to aviation. I want to understand how that kind of passion started.

Mike Stoltzfus (17:27.893)
So the context is that when I was 12, 13, 14, I did some work for my dad. But the aviation thing was always kind of his thing. And I just wanted to go do the entrepreneurial thing. And so because it was kind of his thing, it was like, OK, fine, your thing. I'll go do my thing. Well then, so I did a whole bunch of stuff in agriculture. And I became a dairy nutritionist, feed the salesman, all this stuff.

And when I was 20, so I dropped out of college, went to one semester of college and I just couldn't have the patience for it. So dropped out. Didn't get all this other agribusiness stuff. So then I'm 20 and I owned my own truck and I decided I was not gonna do the feed sales thing anymore. And my dad and I are hanging out and he says, he had a bunch of contracts. He said, I...

I will give you for six weeks, for six week contract, I'll give you this daily rate and I'll lease your truck from you. And something like, I'll do that for six weeks. I'm going to go start a business. I don't know what it is, but I'll go do that. No kidding. And this, were flying airplanes, right? This is, were, we were spraying what's called gypsy moth. We were spraying with, with airplanes like this, VC3s and BCTs. Second day on the job, it's too windy to spray. And so the pilot who's there,

takes me flying. Just did a 172. Now remember this, no family members, Just Caleb Blick. No kidding, hooked. I'm done. I'm like, oh my goodness, I had no idea. I have to learn how to be a pilot. Like, I'm gonna do this. And so it was, that's how, that's how. And then I was done. I was like, I don't care. I got all my ratings in a year.

Dylan Pathirana (19:01.624)
Mm.

Mike Stoltzfus (19:20.605)
I did a whole ton of stuff and that is the very circuitous path of how being a third generation aviation, or a young man who is third generation aviation got hooked on aviation.

Dylan Pathirana (19:34.574)
Yeah, that's an interesting story, right? You're pretty much born to a house with planes, right? And you didn't have that interest till, you know, 10 or 12, right? And can you take us through to your, like, you know, your grandfather started this business, right? Like, can you take us through that journey, please?

Mike Stoltzfus (19:58.933)
Yeah, so 1936 my grandfather bought his first airplane. And he was airplane crazy. had everything to do with aviation. So prior to him buying his first airplane, no, no, around the time he bought his first airplane, he also had an auto body shop.

Dylan Pathirana (20:17.655)
Okay.

Mike Stoltzfus (20:19.133)
And he started his auto body shop just simply as a way to generate money so he could go buy airplanes.

Mike Stoltzfus (20:27.849)
He was in Southeast Pennsylvania. This is farm country. And so the very, he just wanted to fly airplanes. He didn't want to be a crop duster. He just wanted to fly airplanes. So the very logical thing to do was modify one of the airplane, buy an airplane, modify it, and then go be a crop duster.

So he did five things. He purchased, when I say overhaul, he did heavy maintenance. He did heavy modifications, and then he flew the airplane, and he maintained the airplane, starting in 1936. That's our basic model today.

Dylan Pathirana (21:11.532)
got a question on that. I know we're kind of skipping ahead a little bit. But how do you how do you balance now being third generation kind of owner operator of the business? How do you manage the balance between legacy and innovation? Because as you said, you're doing a very similar thing to what your granddad did. But how do you stay ahead of the curve and innovate while maintaining that legacy?

Mike Stoltzfus (21:15.167)
Fine.

Mike Stoltzfus (21:25.962)
you

Mike Stoltzfus (21:32.789)
Yeah, so innovation is a really broad topic. I find, no, So let me give you a couple of pieces first. So grandfather buys his first airplane in 1936. My dad and my uncle literally grow up with airplanes in their backyard. My grandfather bought an airport, I mean, bought a farm and put in a grass strip. My dad and my uncle leave my grandfather's business in 1967. Leave 100 % like.

just enough money for their first semester of tuition here in a local college. They moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia, 200 miles away, and paid for their first month's and their first semester of college, and then started the business same week, two weeks later, as a way to put themselves through school.

Dylan Pathirana (22:01.72)
Wow.

Mike Stoltzfus (22:25.953)
So that's how our business began. So technically I'm third generation aviation, so I'm third generation aviation, but technically I'm second gen our business. And it's very important because mom and dad, they had, literally, it was bootstrapped and they had nothing, right? It was hand to mouth for a couple of decades, which is what I grew up in. Now, let me talk about the innovation part, Dylan. And by the way, it is Dylan, right?

Dylan Pathirana (22:36.214)
Yep.

Dylan Pathirana (22:53.004)
Yeah. Yes.

Mike Stoltzfus (22:53.941)
All right, so you can, can, lice that part out. So, okay, so Dylan, let me talk about the, let me talk about the, the, the innovation part. So, I view it through the lens of, we could have a long conversation on this, but I view it through the lens of,

Mike Stoltzfus (23:13.607)
It's really a spirit of...

searching for those that have creativity around modifying an airplane, finding a new market, creating a better process, some better repeatable process. And so we have had challenges where when we've been in markets that were really mature and the team

was much more focused on operating something mature. We've gone through this cycle where our mix changes dramatically and some of our coworkers are able to make that leap from not a lot of innovation to innovation and some can't. So that's the, so I'm saying that's from a second generation. Our business has been around for 58 years. And so if you think about it,

From a 58-year standpoint, we have seasons of more innovation, we have seasons of less innovation, and it just so happens that literally right now we're going through a major season of refreshing our innovation.

Dylan Pathirana (24:29.25)
And I suppose also on that kind of legacy point, you feel a weight to kind of achieve and carry on that legacy?

Mike Stoltzfus (24:39.157)
Not so much, this is what's fascinating. Because I came to it not, so there's a very important piece in here. So I got hooked, know, by the bug. I got bit by the bug to fly airplanes. And I made a decision five years later when I was 25. Oh, no, no, when I was 26. I basically said, and this happened twice when I was 22. I went and flew for an airline for a couple of years.

Dylan Pathirana (24:41.535)
Mm.

Dylan Pathirana (25:08.45)
Alright.

Mike Stoltzfus (25:08.597)
And so when I was 22 and then again, actually when I was 27, I had two, there were two decision points. And the first, and both times it was similar and that is, is I have a choice. I am either going to do this with my dad or I'm going to do this on my own. And I'm gonna be in the airplane. I was so smitten. I'm gonna be in the airplane business. And in fact, I'm gonna, I love the modified space, right? I love the creativity and love the market and love the geopolitics and all that And so,

So it was much more... When I was 22, I said, uh, no, I'm supposed to hang out. I listening to the intervoice. I'm supposed to hang out here. Then when I was 27, uh, Dad and I basically created the company that we have now and we brought in the company that he owned. So I feel... It's different, right? I don't feel like I am...

Mike Stoltzfus (26:10.261)
No, I don't. It's so much more intrinsic. What's deep within me is this incredibly strong drive to build an aviation business. And I view the business that he and I owned from 97 until he passed in 2020 as something that we built together. And I want to carry on what we built together. So it's a slight difference.

Dylan Pathirana (26:33.31)
Mm. Yeah. And Melissa, we, we've been talking a lot about Mike, but during that timeframe there, you mentioned you.

Mike Stoltzfus (26:40.437)
Oh no, I love this. Every time you the story, I'm like, I can't listen to this enough. So please.

Dylan Pathirana (26:48.975)
You mentioned there you were studying nursing school. Did you eventuate and like graduate from that and kind of what was your path from after you met Mike?

Mike Stoltzfus (26:59.411)
did not because I as I was you know going to class and all of that he then goes like we have I have a trade show in China would you come with me and then I'm like okay then I went with him but then I was like I have to my teachers hey can I do like the you know the next test next thing we know like

Dylan Pathirana (27:13.911)
Yeah

Mike Stoltzfus (27:24.197)
have to travel he wanted me to be part of his journey with him and it started like early on so I was like okay this is not gonna work so I felt released from my nursing that I want to be the travel nurse I'm a traveler now but not you know not the nurse but it was I never finished

but I was very content in putting that on the back burner. And I felt like very strongly I was supposed to, he wanted to take me on a journey with him. And I want to be part of that journey, whatever that is. So we have not stopped ever since.

Dylan Pathirana (28:09.709)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (28:14.318)
So Melissa, you're working with Mike in the dynamic business.

Mike Stoltzfus (28:21.973)
So this is what, so a lot of these questions came when I went to OPM because my parents have to work full time. I always say we have this agreement that my priority was gonna be my voice. So my number one job.

And whatever comes around that, it's around supporting Michael on his journey, but also my voice. I would not trade that for nothing. So I feel like that was my most important job. And so I have been a sounding board for him all along.

So, and I think it's even more helpful that I'm not here every day because he comes home and then we, you know, have all these discussions. And, but I'm not, I'm not clocking in every day. I'm part of the board and knows everything that's going on. Lucas has three more years in high school, so who knows what's gonna happen next.

But right now I'm very involved with some other stuff outside of dynamic that helps dynamic that I'm doing it. so that's how we are navigating through this. But it's a dream effort. I feel like Michael has a brilliant mind that after going to OPM, I have understand a lot

Dylan Pathirana (29:56.728)
Team effort, team effort, yeah, definitely.

Mike Stoltzfus (30:11.259)
why he did certain decisions. know, and we can have a chat now in 10 minutes. I'm good. Like I got it, you know, and which before it was a little bit like what, you know, trying to make a little bit more explanation for me to get there.

Dylan Pathirana (30:21.187)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (30:29.206)
Yeah, yeah. So I guess you guys kind of integrate your business and family together. Like you're still sounding both for Michael, Mike, just for the business. And same time, you're you're connecting that business and family together. Right. So it's just is that helping, Mike, you know, in terms of peace of mind and, you know, focus on what you do best?

Mike Stoltzfus (30:56.617)
Yeah, it's our partnership is that

Mike Stoltzfus (31:06.805)
She's just, she's just extraordinary. I mean, she's, has so much wisdom. She has so much intuition. Most ideas, I've really been working, by the way, you guys will like this. So I learned about a year ago that, that this is for success, right? So what are the predictors of success? There was this study in Pennsylvania, a 30, a 23 year study with 320,000 folks. Bottom line was, sorry.

I'm mixing stories. We'll talk about that one separate, but let me talk about the first one. So there's a professor at MIT who passed away two or three years ago. And his summation over the course of 40 years, 35 years, 40 years of teaching at MIT, his conclusion was that if I want to have

Dylan Pathirana (31:38.253)
Yep, that's fine.

Mike Stoltzfus (32:05.845)
Success, which we can talk more about this by the way. But if I want to have success, there's three things I should do. First one is, is I should improve the quality of my verbal communication. Second is improve the quality of my written communication. And third is improve the quality of my ideas. So, I've not always been the best on the third one.

Dylan Pathirana (32:08.782)
Mm-mm.

Mike Stoltzfus (32:33.361)
I generate a lot of ideas and let's just say that I have destroyed capital via the pursuit of bad ideas. so Melissa has been the one over the years who basically when I come back and I'm like, hey, there's this new market. I think we should pursue it. And these are all the reasons why. This is why there's pent up demand and this is why it will work. You know, dot, dot, dot. And basically she says pretty much all of them that have failed

Dylan Pathirana (32:38.126)
You

Mike Stoltzfus (33:02.429)
She says, nope, not gonna work. She's pretty much, and I've had a lot of failures. And so the point is, the point is that what Melissa has done is showed up with her gifting in a way that is very loving and is a way that helps, not helps, but basically is in a way that...

Dylan Pathirana (33:04.942)
You

Mike Stoltzfus (33:30.741)
rapidly helps me think through how to solve a problem and then gives me the confidence to immediately act. So that's the first part. That was a long-winded way. I'm sure that you guys can get that truncated when you edit this, And now here's the second part, which is something that I was not foreseen whatsoever. And that is that Melissa has had

I always tend to have a 50 year or 100 year vision and that's a lot of what my thinking is around how do we prepare properly. But I've not necessarily seen it fully through the lens of multiple generations. And Melissa has had a vision which is basically let's do things in a way that, the boys want to carry on, they'll carry on, right? We love them, we love them, we work at loving them unconditionally and...

whatever emerges for them, we're going to fan the flame. Thus far, they've both expressed, you know, a fair bit of interest in being involved in something. Point is, that Melissa has brought two things. Number one is she's brought this, by the way, now I'm realizing it's three. This is really long. Forgive me. So the first one is, this sounding board where she has really helped me on ideas. The second one is she has had a

Much.

She's had a very stable vision for longevity of this resource that we have as a family for multiple generations. And the third thing, which this is clearly not the right order, but the third thing is that everyone loves her.

Mike Stoltzfus (35:25.269)
I'm I'm I spent a lot of time up here and I can connect like I work on connecting. But yeah, I'm telling you guys, we go anywhere and she goes, she's literally she's we have she she and I've traveled the world. I don't know how many countries been together probably 30 or 40 and a lot of business related. And I'm telling you, you hang out with I don't care if it's a customer, a co worker, a community member.

Dylan Pathirana (35:26.094)
Totally agree to it.

Mike Stoltzfus (35:55.445)
anyone who's connected. If I show up, I do all this, you know, rational stuff. And that goes only so far. But man, when she shows up, people are like, wow, they're happy, they're emotionally filled. like... So there's a partnership that we have which is pretty darn unique. And it's something for which I have just an immense amount of gratitude.

Dylan Pathirana (36:01.367)
You

Dylan Pathirana (36:18.859)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (36:24.302)
Yeah, I just want to add to that, know, knowing Melissa for the last two and a half years. you know, because she's such a genuine person, right? and then positivity is absolutely right. I'll tell you a good example. Very first year OPM, you know, I've been tasked by my living group to do OPM challenge, which is the pitching comp. And I've been given a topic I didn't have a clue. I was really

stressed, struggling and you know Melissa wasn't even in my living group and she was there making sure that I'm okay, keep coming and talking to me, motivating me and supporting me even when I did the pitching comp I was actually looking to her because I knew genuinely she was backing me up right? I can see you man, I can see you you know

What your relationship with Melissa and what it's, it's awesome. You know, so I can relate it to your story. Yeah. Thank you for sharing. Yeah. And so taking a bit of a left-hand turn, going back to, to business. I want to know, has it been challenging to kind of innovate in an industry that's very by the book? I feel like aviation is one of those things where it's very kind of.

Mike Stoltzfus (37:21.353)
Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (37:29.001)
You know. You know.

Mike Stoltzfus (37:36.097)
Woof.

Dylan Pathirana (37:49.098)
stagnant, we do things by the book, by the checklist. Can you walk us through that?

Mike Stoltzfus (37:49.439)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, flying airplanes, operating airplanes, there's essentially three sets of regulations. There is a special mission and call it general aviation, it's called Farport 91. And then there is like the charter world for small airplanes, it's called Farport 135. And then there's the airline world, which is Farport 121. So, 135, small airplanes charter.

and the airline world, both of those are done under what's called the carriage of passengers or cargo for hire. This is really old language. The sets of regulations that are around that world, passengers or cargo for hire, is a completely different set of regulations than what we operate under in what's called 91.

There are no degrees of freedom in the charter world, the carriage for hire. There's a ton of degrees of freedom in the 91 world. We've done them all, right? By the way, we've entered into 65 markets over the course of the last 58 years, most of them since 1990. And so I got a date, right? I have data.

Dylan Pathirana (39:13.582)
Wow.

Mike Stoltzfus (39:19.029)
on all this. have data on what works, I data on what doesn't work, have data on degrees of freedom, this stuff. And so we've started a couple 135 certificates. And then if there's anyone who's watching this, who's thinking about starting an airline, please, please, please talk to me before you decide to start your airline. So we started a charter airline with MD-80s and 767s about 15 years ago. So.

Dylan Pathirana (39:35.438)
You

Mike Stoltzfus (39:49.393)
We wrote 10,000 pages of 27 manuals, 10,000 pages of basically procedures in order to operate this airline.

I had no idea when I started the airline that I need to be in the 91 space where you can make mods to airplanes and you can create very unique concepts of operations where you don't have 10,000 pages which are telling you how to do your job. Suffice it to say that we sold the airline after we lost unbelievable amount of money.

And what I came through, so the lessons learned from that, you're Dylan, you're really spot on, the lessons learned from that were that we, our team here, me personally, us, we need to be in the 91 business where we have degrees of freedom to create a ton of value and we have to stay out of that transportation world.

which is no creativity, it's only regulation. And ultimately it all gets commoditized and you can't create value.

Dylan Pathirana (41:05.486)
So in simple terms Mike, your business is hiring airplanes?

Mike Stoltzfus (41:14.389)
So our business is everything is modified. So our mission is to protect and defend the world with modified airplanes. So we buy the airplanes and then we modify the airplanes here. And then we fly them on a mission. On their special mission. So I'll give you a cut.

Dylan Pathirana (41:33.134)
Can you...

Dylan Pathirana (41:39.032)
For our listeners, for our listeners, could you give an example?

Mike Stoltzfus (41:42.217)
Yes, of course, of course. So we work in, so think of it kind of as a matrix. We work in the defense space and we work in the civil space. Is it all government? No, I basically all government. Most of the dollars originate a government. And then we do data collection and we do disperse. So we either hoover up data with sensors on the airplanes or we drop something out of the airplane. Specific, specific examples.

In the defense space, it's what's called ISR. It's the Gathering Intelligence Via Surveillance or Reconnaissance, where we will be in a combat, a theater, and we are like counter IED. If you remember the Hurt Locker, if you remember all the improvised explosive devices. We saved, we were in that market for 20 years. We saved on the order of about,

We think 25, you don't really know, but we saved on the order of 25,000 lives by nominating IEDs and then the IEDs were taken off the battlefield before they dismembered a warfighter. So that's one example. Another example is maritime patrol aircraft. You guys are in Australia, right? Okay, so there's a...

Dylan Pathirana (43:04.354)
Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (43:09.663)
There are always, there's always activity in the literal, in the maritime zone. There's usually illegal activity. And so for instance, in Australia, there's a thing called a coastal watch. And there's a bunch of dash eights that fly basically doing surveillance of, any form of illegal activity. So we do a whole ton of that.

We spray for mosquitoes. So both of those are types of hoovering up data, right? Both of those are sensors that we're collecting data. Stuff that we drop out of airplanes. We spray for mosquitoes. We have King Airs. A King Air is a multi-engine turboprop airplane and we go and we spray for mosquitoes. We're at 100 meters with night vision goggles at night. I've done a ton of Okay? We release, no kidding, we release sterile flies.

sterile insects. We release sterile Mediterranean fruit flies. We release sterile screwworm flies. And so right now, actively, we're in about five markets for data collection and six markets for disperse. One more disperse that you guys will like. We have a fleet of 737s.

Dylan Pathirana (44:04.227)
Wow.

Dylan Pathirana (44:08.718)
Amazing!

Mike Stoltzfus (44:32.565)
which are tanked for oil spill response. So if there's an oil spill, 4,100 gallons, 4,175 gallons in the airplane, if there's an oil spill, we will load it with an emulsifier, which is basically soap, and we will go out and we will spray the oil spill. On and on and on and on.

Dylan Pathirana (44:37.198)
Wow.

Dylan Pathirana (44:53.164)
Well, well.

Dylan Pathirana (44:57.799)
how big your fleet is, like how many airplanes you have.

Mike Stoltzfus (45:01.791)
About 140 airplanes.

Dylan Pathirana (45:03.596)
Wow. That's impressive. And I suppose after nearly what it'd be nearly 20 years at the helm of dynamic. What are some of the key lessons that you've learned? Whether it's just about entrepreneurship or leading people or building culture. What are some of the key lessons?

Mike Stoltzfus (45:06.805)
Thank

Mike Stoltzfus (45:19.832)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, number one is it's never as good as it seems and it's never as bad as it seems. Next one would be good news, all truth, all the time. Next one would be good news fast, bad news faster. Next one would be focused on the inputs and trust for the outputs. In other words, the input is, is, is,

Dylan Pathirana (45:39.062)
you

Mike Stoltzfus (45:47.701)
Create and deliver value for your customer every day. And the output is, if it's done right, you'll be able to capture value. The next one is, and capture value, usually be a pricing or via essentially net dollars. The next one is, take the long view. It's so much easier because it's hard to make the right decisions if you don't have the long view.

So then as it has to do with harvesting value, you could either say capturing value or harvesting value. The next one then is one must make a decision. What are they going to do with that monetary capturing of value? And what we do, and again, this goes back to the Germanic, actually to the farming, right? To the Amish and the Mennonites. Every dollar goes back into the business.

and it's easy to do that if that's what we've been doing for a hundred years, right? So don't take money out of the business. It's okay to be land rich and cash poor. So let's see what else. Okay, those are all concepts. Really the single biggest, not the single, those are concepts of how to run the business. the issue is, look, at the end of the day, it's all about people, right? And everybody says that.

Dylan Pathirana (46:56.876)
Yep. Yep.

Mike Stoltzfus (47:08.863)
But really at the end of day, it's all about people. And so when I talk about creating and delivering value for our customers every day, there's a, we put that first, because ultimately they pay the bills. But our purpose at Dynamic, and again, this is opposite of the world, our purpose at Dynamic, you guys are not gonna believe this, love God and love your neighbor.

Mike Stoltzfus (47:38.485)
Who writes that? Nuts. Right? And so, love God and love your neighbor is actually ahead of creating and delivering value for the customer every day. For every customer every day. So if love God and love your neighbor is actually what your purpose is, then it means that if I am with a customer, I'm focusing on creating and delivering value for them. If I'm with a coworker,

Dylan Pathirana (47:39.502)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (47:52.269)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Pathirana (48:05.933)
Mm-mm-mm.

Mike Stoltzfus (48:06.419)
I'm focused on creating value and delivering value for them. So all these ideas around creating and delivering value for the customer, they essentially, they're the external, there's internal customers which are our coworkers. Now, why do I say this? That's just a bunch of Harvard language for people.

Dylan Pathirana (48:15.406)
Mm.

Mike Stoltzfus (48:25.141)
It's all this stuff, all this stuff we do. And again, we use this language all the time, it's channel partners. So when we were in the counter IED business, we were working for the Department of Defense. Well, we would fight all day long with anybody in the channel because we were saving more fighters' lives. people, right? We're saving lives. Well, not only that, but think farther than that.

We're not only are we saving the warfighter's life, but we're having a generational impact on his family. Because he or she, mainly he's, because he's gonna come home. He's gonna care for his bride, he's gonna care for his kids, he's gonna care for his community. And so there's this people part all through the channel in what we do on the customer side. But then...

Dylan Pathirana (48:59.924)
Mm. Mm.

Mike Stoltzfus (49:17.001)
then the people part is, it's our coworkers. We call them employees, but I think of, you know, we're just all co-laboring, we're co-working together. And so then the question is, what are we doing today? What are we doing today to serve our people? And what are we doing today to care for them in a way and give them opportunities and encourage them to grow and encourage them to love well and to basically to love their neighbor, love their family. And when we do that, to the degree that any of those seeds get sown and germinate,

Dylan Pathirana (49:40.802)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mike Stoltzfus (49:46.501)
My goodness, the impact on the world. Like that's what all this is about. So I say this in like two parts, Like what have I learned? Well, I've learned that all of this structure, all of these systems, all that way of thinking, truth all the time, all that stuff, that stuff really, really, really, really matters. But at the end of the day, it's not more important than the people. The people, this is all about the people.

Dylan Pathirana (49:50.635)
Absolutely.

Dylan Pathirana (49:56.845)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (50:10.222)
I love that. Like, honestly, that's such a good interpretation of something I'd never even thought about, you know, know thy neighbor, you hear it. But from that, that's like a business aspect of it as well. It's maybe maybe that was the first ever business quote out there know thy neighbor. But yeah, I really, really like that that take on things.

Mike Stoltzfus (50:12.563)
Hahahaha

Mike Stoltzfus (50:18.943)
Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (50:30.837)
Yeah, so by the way, you should know this. So our purpose being love God and love your neighbor, that wasn't our purpose always, right? I've had purposes in my life where my purpose is to build businesses or my purpose is to build an airline or my purpose is to operate X number of airplanes or X number whatever. Well, the problem is then whenever I've done that, then I put that ahead of the relationship. And when I do that, then I end up with a trail of broken relationships behind me.

Dylan Pathirana (50:56.131)
Mm.

Dylan Pathirana (50:59.98)
Yeah. Relationships first.

Mike Stoltzfus (51:02.389)
And that's what we in business. We do this, I mean, and I'm not beating myself up, saying a lot of us do that. And so my conclusion was ultimately the last couple of years was, look, I'm just tired of living life this way. I don't want to put anything ahead of loving God and loving others. And that's why it emerged this way.

Dylan Pathirana (51:22.092)
It's like Stephen Covey says the emotional bank account, right? And you're, you're adding to the emotional bank account with every relationship that you have working on that. And then that down the line will provide value.

Mike Stoltzfus (51:26.485)
Well

Mike Stoltzfus (51:35.911)
And but the question is, is am I doing it to provide value or am I doing it from a place in my heart that says I am here to serve you. I'm here to serve my bride. I've been working a little bit too hard lately and my bride's like seriously, I'm actually here. So I'm not suggesting that I live this out like the way as good as I should. But the point is, is where's my heart? My heart is to serve my bride. My heart is to care for my bride.

Dylan Pathirana (51:47.182)
Mmm. Mmm.

Dylan Pathirana (51:59.532)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (52:04.903)
And by the way, Cubby, I believe this, I met a bunch of friends of his back in the day. And he was a man, he, absolutely a man with a good heart, a man with a beautiful heart. And he was on his own journey of trying to figure out how to do this in a way where he cares, cares for others. But he also communicates. He also teaches all of these deep truths that he discovered over time.

Dylan Pathirana (52:31.502)
Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. I want to, I want to move to another thing that you're quite passionate about, which is air for the first air force one. I saw it and I was interested, like immediately peaked. I told Dylan as well, that story. So it seems like such an incredible project. And I just want to hear from you what it's about and how you even got into it in the first place.

Mike Stoltzfus (52:40.213)
yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (52:53.013)
Well, first of all, you guys have an open invitation to come and see her anytime. So please come.

Dylan Pathirana (52:57.71)
I will be taking you off on that. Don't you worry. We love to. love to one day. will.

Mike Stoltzfus (53:04.277)
So this is a fascinating subject. My dad was one of the most enthusiastic aviation enthusiasts that I've ever met. He... I love business. I love airplanes, but I love business. Whatever you see me talking about business and all this stuff we just talked about...

He would talk to you, and he and I had this shared passion around what we call round engine airplanes, right? BT-18s, DC-3s, all these airplanes, we call them warbirds, the ones that actually fought in the war. But his passion and his enthusiasm for all things aviation, I've not met many people, I know a lot of people in the airplane space, I've not met many that had it.

as deeply, right? His pulse was bam, bam, bam. in the mid 2010s, he was just becoming less involved in the business. And if you knew him, you would know that his energy was like a 95 or 100, right? He had to have something. So we had a DC-3 that he did a

world-class restoration on and He was kind of getting done and he and I from various friends got this Email of a YouTube video that the first Air Force one was going to get cut up Because they couldn't they couldn't afford the storage anymore and the museum didn't miss only and couldn't could they don't have money they couldn't they couldn't there was no vision for that there and So dad long story short

So this story, the first Air Force One story, the airplane, this is all my dad. Very important to know this. This is my dad's. Look, he's got a lot of stuff around legacy, but when this airplane, when we finish the full restoration of the airplane and the airplane is on tour and is inspiring, you know...

Mike Stoltzfus (55:25.343)
There's basically nine groups of people we want to inspire, zero to 10, 10 to 20, so on and so forth. There's a value proposition, sorry for all the business language, but there's a value proposition, let me get to the heart. This airplane touches the heart of people at every age level. so what's gonna be so unique about Dad's Legacy is when this airplane is on tour,

Dylan Pathirana (55:40.742)
Yep.

Mike Stoltzfus (55:54.901)
in the U.S. We want to go to Europe every other summer. And you are at an air show and oh the beauty of this airplane is it is the lines of the connie the 749 connie is the short connie constellation are they're timeless. We were two years ago we're two years ago we were we have a friend who restored a

Dylan Pathirana (56:14.04)
Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (56:22.613)
749 Connie and we were at Oshkosh. Oshkosh is the largest air show in the world. know, 100,000 people throughout the week and we were the Rod Lewis's Connie was turning final. I've been going Oshkosh since I was eight years old and I've there, I've been there, I don't know, probably 40 times. I'm not 48 by the way, so I missed some. So Rod Lewis's 749, the Bhutan.

Dylan Pathirana (56:37.517)
Wow.

Dylan Pathirana (56:44.523)
Yeah

Mike Stoltzfus (56:52.501)
turns final, no kidding. I have been to countless Oshkosh air shows. I have never, you can hear a pin drop. I have never felt what I felt and I've never observed this frequency amongst the people of this to utter all of the airplane. Here's the point. What's gonna happen is when the airplane's done and it's on the air show circuit and it's turning final,

Dylan Pathirana (57:02.658)
Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (57:21.533)
And then we're allowing, you know, to eight-year-olds and 15-year-olds and the parents and the grandparents and the great-grandparents to walk on that airplane and to sit where Eisenhower sat.

My dad's legacy is gonna be like, right, it's just gonna be remarkable what his legacy is gonna do. Long-winded way to say, long-winded way to say, I show up much more around the airplane, around, and he and I were in agreement on this. He wanted to build the airplane. He wanted me to figure out what we were gonna do with it. And we were in agreement 100 % from the moment he said he thinks he needs to build it. We were in agreement on this.

Dylan Pathirana (57:43.809)
Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (58:06.137)
And so my heart around the airplane and my pulse around the airplane, my passion around the airplane is inspire, just inspire. And when you and the four of us or anybody that's on this podcast, when we have the hair stand up or when we have the chills go and there's something that stirs within us, it changes us. And it gives us a vision of something of, it gives us a vision.

Dylan Pathirana (58:14.648)
Mm-hmm.

Mike Stoltzfus (58:34.005)
It grounds us, right? There's something, something when we're inspired, there's something that is within us already that's dormant and that needs light and it needs to be opened up. And the probability of this, what I'm excited about, the probability of this airplane doing that over and over and over and over over again with all kinds of friends around the world is over the top.

Dylan Pathirana (58:37.155)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Pathirana (59:00.0)
The gift that keeps on giving all of that. And I want to I want to get some insight from you being very critical in the aviation industry. Something that's of interest to me is kind of the future, right? So I want to I want to get your take. Where do you think the future of aviation is going? Is it sustainable fuels? Is it electric aircraft? What from someone who's in the industry? Where is the future for aviation?

Mike Stoltzfus (59:02.122)
Go!

Mike Stoltzfus (59:27.221)
Alright.

Mike Stoltzfus (59:34.069)
So could go all kinds of directions with this. If you want me to give you a really quick overview, let me give you a quick overview. And then if you've got any specifics, we can go into it. So...

Mike Stoltzfus (59:54.281)
The history of the world is that any form of energy that's created ultimately creates demand for which there's not enough energy.

For all intents and purposes, any form of energy, this is my opinion, any form of energy that is generated will be used. So it will continue to be the majority of the energy that's used to propel airplanes will be what we call jet A, right? It'll be, it's kind of like diesel, but it's purified. That will be a huge component of aviation for the next 50 years.

And I would actually argue a hundred years and I could explain all the reasons why, but suffice it to say that in 2018, we were all going to be driving electric cars by 2022 and they would all be self-driving by 2024. So just apply that to any other form of energy for airplanes. It's just not going to happen near as fast as we think. So that's the first one. And so yes, will biofuels be a huge component? Yes, they will. What's the percentage? I don't know.

It's really complicated. It's incredibly capital intensive. And so you've got to, it's huge trade off. Certainly the cheapest is just carbon. So that's the first one. Next. I have a very good friend, a of good friends, actually more than one, a couple of good friends in the electric space.

One friend who is he's like he's like the Bill Bowie of this energy of this of this generation What he and his team are doing is

Mike Stoltzfus (01:01:41.909)
projected out, there will be, so I'm not an engineer. there's certain, let me simplify. Yes, electric.

20 years from now.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:02:00.509)
My head's not deep enough into it, my head's really in our business right now, my head's not deep enough into it to be able to tell you probabilities with regards to how many nine seat and less airplanes will be electric. I would say the probability 20 years, no, no, no, 50 years from now, the probability of it either being electric or it being, what do you call it when it's mix? Hybrid, hybrid. So the probability 50 years from now,

of most power plants being propelled by either electric or some form of hybrid energy is very high.

let me give you the next one. this is fascinating. my goodness. By the way, I'm a bit of a... You guys, do you guys know...

Strength Finder, do you guys do Strength Finder? Clifton Strength Finder, basically tells you about your strengths. don't have to put it in. What I'm getting ready to tell you right now, please don't put this in. Number one is I'm a futurist. So everything that I think about is through this future lens, which is why I tend to get pretty animated when I answer this question. Now here's what's fascinating.

Dylan Pathirana (01:02:57.313)
yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:03:02.136)
No, no, good.

Dylan Pathirana (01:03:07.144)
I love that.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:03:18.581)
There's a blended wing. The blended wing technology has been around for 50 years, 60, 70 years. And then NASA did a pretty big kick on the flywheel 30 years ago. And now there's a guy that's really made a lot of progress with it. If I were going to bet on what is the single biggest potential game changer in commercial aviation, not small airplanes in commercial aviation.

It's the blended wing. Now, the problem with this is, and I can't tell you the name of the company, but the problem with this, by the way, all this stuff you can talk about, I'm saying just don't put on the podcast that I scored the future in. I always feel like that's being arrogant, right? So the blended wing, the issue around the blended wing, and this goes back to our innovation conversation. And that is, is there's always these forces

Dylan Pathirana (01:04:05.432)
You

Mike Stoltzfus (01:04:17.575)
around keeping it static. Don't move my cheese. And so what I don't know is, what I don't, by the way, this explains the electric business. This explains the, a little bit on the biofuels, not so much, but the regulatory, the regulatory, and this goes back to earlier conversation about the 121 world. Everything is built to not improve, not to innovate. It's all built to stay the same and it's all around the idea of safety.

The point is, is that the probability of the blended wing, there's a lot of forces against it, but there's a lot of forces for it. And I think the blended wing has huge potential. Let me see what else.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:05:04.021)
Oh, unmanned, fascinating subject. I'm glad you are. Unmanned. So we've been working on this for a long time. And we have some partners that are really smart in the space. Ultimately, think the... So driving cars without people is hard enough as it has to do with someone walking in front of a car.

Dylan Pathirana (01:05:07.274)
Unmanned planes.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:05:32.729)
Flying airplanes actually in the airspace, it's easy, it's simple. And no kidding, because you're not driving around corners, the takeoff, all of the algorithms around the takeoff and all the algorithms around the landing, they're not particularly hard to do. The issue is a, argument is will the, no, what's the next generation, millennials? Who's in their 20s and 30s now? No, though.

Anyway, whatever the next generation is, the argument has been, the argument was for five or six years, that the folks that get used to riding around without a driver in the taxi, then they'll be okay with riding around in an airplane without somebody up front.

Dylan Pathirana (01:06:23.712)
Hmm. Yeah, that's the problem. Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:06:26.997)
not gonna work. Here's what I believe will happen. I believe that, by the way, this is not, again, because I'm not thinking about this deeply. I can't tell you what's been going on in last six months in this space. Or even a year ago, would have told you, I bought into the idea a year ago that we are on a path whereby the co-pilot, and I still believe this, where the co-pilot,

will be replaced with an AI, not an AI robot, basically an AI, something, an algorithm and a control system which will allow the airplane to fully function without a person in the cockpit. But because of the, because of the,

Dylan Pathirana (01:07:02.934)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:07:15.809)
Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:07:24.563)
By the I'm sorry, I don't have all the language for this. I wish I could spit it out. But because of the...

Dylan Pathirana (01:07:27.241)
That's fine.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:07:36.297)
The mental issue with having to have a pilot up front, I think where we will go is they'll be up for the next 50 years. I think there'll be at least one pilot. But I think I would say that in the next 10 to 15 years, there'll be some way we'll get to a tipping point. It's probably more like 20 years to get to a tipping point where we are now no longer required to have two people up front.

Dylan Pathirana (01:07:58.126)
That's really fascinating. Mike and Melissa, what's the plan for you guys? What's next? What's next for you?

Mike Stoltzfus (01:08:09.097)
You make it first, you make it first. Well, you can go first. So, our market's changed dramatically. The world is changing. A lot of the way that we serve governments, the requirements are increasing in Europe. Our pipeline's growing there. It's going to increase in Asia-Pacific. And so...

from a business standpoint, it is really figure out how to build the business in a way where we have phenomenal people basically serving our customers, where our team takes more responsibility and I have less responsibility. And then as it has to do with, because I'm still young and Melissa's still young. And so a little farther around the corner,

Dylan Pathirana (01:08:59.458)
course.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:09:03.657)
The question is, is how do we, we're gonna, it's a much bigger issue for Melissa than for me. We're gonna be empty nesters in two years. And so what's been going on in my mind is how do I serve, how do I care for Melissa as we go through this empty nesting process? And then what does it mean from a standpoint of what do we do together?

So that I'm properly caring for her. That's what's on my mind. You didn't Well, I think it's like

Dylan Pathirana (01:09:31.774)
Mm, mm, mm. Mm, mm, mm, mm.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:09:40.885)
feel like every month something comes up and it's different than we even thought was going to be. know, something on the pipeline becomes really goes up and becomes reality. And I feel like we have a team right now. We build a team that we are on the last big change with a CFO that

we could not have asked for a better team. So I'm just very confident. again, because I wanna, it's very important to me if the boys wanna lead this business that we are thinking of all of this and really being good stewards of what we have, you know. So I think there is a concern now.

of you know we want to do better for them and leave this better for them if they chose to do it. Otherwise we both love to travel together and encourage you know our people on their on the bases and and all of that. I'm such a people person and for me it gives me such a just sitting with the mechanics and Abu Dhabi or whatever. It's just

I just, I'm like, my gosh, this is a great team. And I just got so pumped up and sharing stories and being grateful. Like I have so much gratitude for where we are, but both Michael and I have a huge sense of giving back also to, know, the more you give, the more you expect to give. So I feel like that is huge part of.

Dylan Pathirana (01:11:05.154)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:11:20.558)
Mm-mm. Mm. Mm.

Mm. Mm.

Dylan Pathirana (01:11:31.544)
Do you want your children to get involved in this business? Or that's their choice?

Mike Stoltzfus (01:11:31.892)
our lives.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:11:38.421)
That's 100 % their choice. 100 % we did not, we always, and I pray this with them every morning. I say that God use the gifts that each one of you have and that you be able to really have fun with whatever you choose to be. so it's completely, there's not.

not even once we have said, hey, are you thinking about this? Are you think, absolutely. Like I wanted him to be, I wanted him to be good human beings, whatever they decide to be. And that for me, then I feel like my job is done. Like, and they're happy. But I will say, please,

Dylan Pathirana (01:12:21.87)
Well

Dylan Pathirana (01:12:26.147)
Go ahead.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:12:27.125)
But I will say this.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:12:31.509)
If you hang out with them and listen to them, it certainly appears that they have a vision of this business and how they're going to run the business and how they're going to grow the business. They talk about that a lot.

Dylan Pathirana (01:12:37.656)
That's amazing.

Dylan Pathirana (01:12:43.352)
That's good. Succession plan. That's good. I guess they were listening to you and then they developed that passion to grow that business. It's amazing. And talking about passion, Mike, you've done OPM, owner president management, Harvard twice. Is there any chance that you do it third time?

Mike Stoltzfus (01:13:03.049)
No. That's why you're standing in the No.

Dylan Pathirana (01:13:08.782)
What's the reason that I think I asked that question before but I wanted to know why you did it twice?

Mike Stoltzfus (01:13:15.313)
Yeah, so we, did it the first time and then we as a business, we grew 1400 % over 10 years. And we had, had, you know, we were so, so extraordinarily blessed. And then I lost my way. I began to believe that it was, that I had something to do with it and that, you know, then I made some wrong decisions and the whole, what we,

Dylan Pathirana (01:13:22.67)
Wow

Mike Stoltzfus (01:13:43.913)
built as a result of OPM the first time, a lot of it started to fall away and I'm like, this is wrong. I've got to figure out how to solve this. And so that's why I the second time.

Dylan Pathirana (01:13:58.67)
Amazing. And looking back on both of your journeys, do you feel successful?

Mike Stoltzfus (01:14:07.327)
I do. I still like I have a lot to learn. I mean, being at Harvard with everybody, like I think I was the only one who didn't go to the business every day. And, you know, and to that extent, I have learned so much from my peers and all of that. And I still in from our own business. And Michael, Michael even told me, you're going to learn more about our business than anything else to.

And I'm like, I had all these questions coming back and I have all this, you know, it's so true. I feel like I feel successful, like with my kids, with my husband, with my family being next to me. But the business, like saving lives every time we do it for me, it's like there's nothing like it and nothing like it.

Dylan Pathirana (01:14:39.721)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Pathirana (01:14:58.766)
Mm.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:15:05.769)
So that's mine. So, yeah, yeah. So the way we started the conversation was that it's listening to the inner voice, right? Do I listen to the inner voice and then do I activate immediately on the inner voice? And so spiritually, for me, that's more the Holy Spirit, right? Everybody has a different way of naming it. And so to the degree,

Dylan Pathirana (01:15:07.64)
about you Mike.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:15:34.857)
that I have the ears to hear and then act immediately on whatever the Holy Spirit guides me to do, then yes, I have success. I'm not going to tell you how well I do at that. I'm not going to tell you how often I don't activate immediately, but that's my measure for success. Whether I feel successful or not, this is actually a fascinating subject.

Dylan Pathirana (01:15:50.67)
You

Mike Stoltzfus (01:16:02.757)
in that I don't show up in the world wanting to be successful. I show up in the world with this never-ending drive to stay true to self and to listen and to follow this intrinsic voice or this intrinsic motivation. that's how I want to live my life. if ultimately the world says, well, look, that guy looks successful.

Dylan Pathirana (01:16:08.142)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Pathirana (01:16:32.821)
Yep.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:16:32.853)
Fine, so be it, but I'm not driven by that at all.

Dylan Pathirana (01:16:36.056)
Yeah.

Dylan Pathirana (01:16:39.372)
like that. Well, Mike and Melissa, we could actually talk to you guys probably for hours and hours and hours. But I'm conscious of your time. And throughout our conversation, I've been jotting down some key ingredients, which I think have been crucial to building your successful lives. And I'd like to share them with you. The first one I think stood out the most to me is you're both incredibly family driven. And you could just tell in the emotion when you were talking about family. It's it is

one of the main reasons that you guys do what you do and you'll want to be close to your family. You clearly have an incredible relationship between you and also your kids and your parents. And I think that gives you a foundation to go off and do the things that you do so that you can build a better life and carry on this, this family legacy. The second one is this concept of like value creation first, like always driving towards value and

understanding the people that you're around, understanding your customers so that you can really push value for them and doing something specifically for them. And I think that's something really true. know, a lot of founders go out there, build something and then look for a customer. You're very much pushing for drive value first. And I think that's that's a key part of your success. The next one is authenticity. I mean, both of you, you know, you don't try and be someone else. You're very much portraying who you are and

you accept your flaws and are working towards trying to be who you intrinsically want to be. And I think that's really powerful. The next one is positivity and passion. mean, Mike, whether it was you talking about the future of aviation, you could tell there was passion there. And Melissa, you haven't stopped smiling this entire conversation. There is such a great positive energy. And it makes it easy for people to connect with you as well.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:18:26.837)
Ha

Dylan Pathirana (01:18:32.59)
You know, it's so easy to have these conversations when people love what they're talking about and they're smiling through the screens. makes it so much easier. And I think that helps also just in connections and relationships in the real world as well. And then finally, it's curiosity. You're both obviously very avid learners and that stems from this curiosity to understand other people and also like knowledge as well. Curiosity towards what's going to be in the future and

how to develop your business, how to develop yourselves and your family. So thank you so much for this conversation. It's been incredibly insightful. And also the one key reason for your success is two of you, right? Your partnership and your love and compassion, like, know, to each other. And that's really, really, I mean, you agree to that, right? Like, you know, I mean, you have different strengths and then, but

Mike Stoltzfus (01:19:26.837)
the first.

Dylan Pathirana (01:19:30.99)
together, your synergies, like it's amazing, right? So that's definitely a core factor for your success. And it's so much pleasure having that conversation with you, Mike and Melissa. know, I mean, we want to take that offer one day. We want to come over and see all these airplanes. You know, I grew up, wanted to become a pilot and my parents didn't allow me to.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:19:42.558)
Thank

Mike Stoltzfus (01:19:50.389)
Please.

Dylan Pathirana (01:19:59.276)
be a pilot because we were at a war in where I grew up in Sri Lanka and a few of my friends got killed. So I didn't have that option. I still, I still have that love of aviation and I want to definitely want to make that trip over to you guys. And yeah, yeah. And thank you so much for your time today. Thank you, Mark and obrigado Melissa. It's been a wonderful conversation and

Mike Stoltzfus (01:20:04.723)
Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:20:18.197)
Please do.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:20:24.757)
You're the best. So let me say a couple of things before we sign off. So first, Jim and Dylan, for both of you, from Melissa and I, from our entire family and the entire Dynamic Aviation family, we now...

officially invite you both. To come to Bridgewater, Virginia to see some cool airplanes, hang out with us, and it now is an open invitation. So that's number one. Number two, Jam, you have

so much for which to be grateful but really proud of Dylan. Dylan, your spirit, your preparation, your deep listening, and your embodiment of this conversation is unique. You are very gifted in this.

Dylan Pathirana (01:21:34.99)
Thank you,

Mike Stoltzfus (01:21:35.667)
That's second thing. Then the, GM and this is, so then this is, this is the, but this is the most special part. It's fascinating when, any of us or anybody listening to this podcast, when we walk into a room, we immediately feel something and that energy that we feel is either something that like, or it's like something very positive. And literally the moment that Melissa and I,

when you all came up, the energy, the love that you have for one another, and the energy that you conveyed to us when you see us smiling, much of it is the fact that we're just simply responding to your energy, which is beautiful.

Dylan Pathirana (01:22:22.67)
Thank you so much. Thank you for the kind words, Mark and Lisette. It means And by the way, we have to bring our dynamic team as well. So we are also dynamic. I don't know you aware, my company called Be Dynamic, right? So, yeah. So dynamic actually, Dylan, Naomi, Michelle. So the first letters, that's how our dynamic come from. Yeah.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:22:25.149)
huge in their family. Huge.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:22:36.821)
She told me there's three

Mike Stoltzfus (01:22:49.878)
my goodness, that is extra special. That's cool. Family. That's really cool. Family. So you have a great dynamic family. Exactly.

Dylan Pathirana (01:22:53.25)
Something we have in common.

And yet we do. we, we, we openly invite you guys when you're on your empty nesters and you you're traveling, come over to Sydney. We'd love, love to have you over here.

Mike Stoltzfus (01:23:09.341)
We'll love that. We'll love that. you. Thank you, friends. Thank you. We will tuck that one away. Yes. Thank you, Evan.

Dylan Pathirana (01:23:15.116)
And with that, thank you so much for tuning into this episode. If you found it inspirational and insightful, it would be a massive favor if you could subscribe or follow us on whichever channel you're listening to this on right now. And you can see all of that inspirational conversations over on our website, the quest for success podcast.com. And with that, we'll catch you guys in the next episode. Thanks for listening.