Fall 50 Ultramarathon
50 miles. Door County.
Endurance is just the Operator Trap in running shoes. The only way out is one mile at a time.
Franchise Builder · Turnaround Operator · Keynote Speaker
Are you flying
the plane, or running
the airline?
Franchise builder. Turnaround operator. Author of Grow Smart. A business and thought leader who happens to fly — using 38 years in the cockpit to teach franchise owners how to finally escape the Operator Trap.
2026 Reel
The Operator Trap
4 Ground-Up 7-Figure Builds
2 Seven-Figure Exits
First NBC in Wisconsin
Tony Robbins Platinum Partner
Author of Grow Smart
Pilot Since 1987 · CFI
The Operator Trap
Turbulence
is inevitable.
Most franchise owners are flying with both hands on the yoke — every single day — convinced that if they let go, the plane goes down.
They started a business to gain freedom. Instead, they've become the pilot, the mechanic, the air-traffic controller, and the flight attendant. They're exhausted, indispensable, and quietly wondering if this is really what success was supposed to feel like.
It's not a discipline problem. It's an altitude problem.
From Mike's Own Franchise
"Every box in that van once felt like it had my fingerprints on it. That's the trap."
82%
of franchise owners report working IN their business, not ON it.
60+
hour workweeks are the norm — not the exception.
73%
say their business controls their life — not the other way around.
"They're not running an airline. They're stuck flying the plane."
— Mike DeJong
The Track Record
Receipts.
Not just rhetoric.
Mike isn't a pilot who talks about business. He's a leader who builds, turns around, and scales — and happens to fly.
$1.2M
opening-year revenue
vs. the brand average of $700K. 71% above average from day one.
9 mo
signed → grand opening
When the brand average from contract to opening is over a year.
4
ground-up 7-figure builds
Every location Mike has personally built from the dirt up.
−12% → +23%
YOY turnaround
Acquired a struggling cross-country unit in May. By Dec 31, same year, comping +23% YOY.
2
seven-figure exits
Two businesses built, scaled, and sold for $1M+. Plus a smaller exit — $90K invested, $200K out, in six months.
2.2×
ROI in 6 months
Took a failing franchise from broken to rocking — $90K in, $200K out — before the year was over.
Built the first Nothing Bundt Cakes in Wisconsin. Built three more. Took a failing unit across the country from −12% to +23% in seven months. Engineered two seven-figure exits. Built it in the trenches. Now I teach what I built.
— Mike's day job, in numbers.
Signature Keynote
The Franchise Owner's
path to Freedom.
From The Stage
"Most owners don't need another hustle. They need an altitude check."
01
Flight Plan
Build the systems and SOPs that fly the business without the founder constantly at the controls.
02
Auto-Pilot Teams
Empower a team that makes decisions, owns outcomes, and operates without daily micromanagement.
03
Altitude Metrics
Track the numbers that actually matter — so leaders lead from 30,000 feet, not the cockpit floor.
Speaker Reel
Mike in action.
Three minutes of why event planners keep rebooking him.
Cockpit Cam
"I don't talk about flying. I take you flying."
Robinson R44 · Helicopter Rating
EST. 1987
First Solo · Royal Canadian Air Cadets
About Mike
The cockpit
taught me how to run a business.
I started flying in 1987 — a teenage Royal Canadian Air Cadet at the Central Region Gliding School. In the 1990s I came back as a tow pilot and glider instructor. Forty years later I'm rated single, multi, helicopter, glider, and single-engine seaplane — and I'm a Certified Flight Instructor in four of those categories. The cockpit taught me the lesson I now teach from the stage: the pilots who actually go places aren't the ones gripping the controls the tightest.
Off the flight deck I'm a multi-unit franchise owner and turnaround expert. I've taken struggling locations from chaos to record-breaking — by asking three questions every time: What systems can we build? What culture do we need? How do we make success inevitable?
As a Tony Robbins Platinum Partner, I've helped hundreds of business leaders answer the only question that really matters — how can my business serve my life, not consume it?
38+
Years Flying
5
Pilot Ratings · 4 CFI
100s
Operators Coached
The Flight Log
Five ratings.
Four decades. One playbook.
Most pilot-speakers have a story. Mike has a logbook — and the operating manual to match.
Rated+ CFI
ASEL
Single-Engine Airplane
Rated+ CFI
AMEL
Multi-Engine Airplane
Rated
ROTO
Helicopter
Rated
GLDR
Glider
Rated+ CFI
SES
Single-Engine Seaplane
Rated+ CFI
INST
Instrument Airplane
Pilot since 1987. Certified Flight Instructor in four categories — Single & Multi-Engine Land, Single-Engine Sea, and Instrument Airplane. One thing every rating taught me: it's what you don't see that bites you.
Reno, NV
Mike (left) with Captain Robert "Hoot" Gibson — five-time Space Shuttle Commander, Reno Air Racing legend.
The "Hold My Beer" Moment
"Hold my beer
and watch this."
Reno Air Races. Hoot Gibson — Space Shuttle Commander, the man who flew Atlantis, Columbia, and Endeavour — had just won. I rushed the pits in my Crew shirt, caught him in the chaos, and asked him to sign it.
Without missing a beat, he handed me his drink, looked at the shirt, and said: "Hold my beer and watch this."
It's the perfect metaphor for everything I teach. The people who achieve the impossible — astronauts, surgeons, championship operators — aren't gripping the controls white-knuckle. They're calm. Confident. Trained beyond the moment. They've built the systems so that when the chaos comes, they can hand you the beer.
That's what an Owner does. That's where freedom lives.
The Alligator Lesson · Float Rating, FL
It's not the gators
you can see.
Float-plane training. Ponce de Leon Springs, Florida — rumored fountain of youth. We taxied in and a 10-foot alligator rolled right next to our float, lazy and unbothered. I figured we'd wait him out.
The docks were partially submerged, so we waded in. I muttered something to my instructor about keeping an eye on the gator.
He looked at me and said: "Gators are the least of our worries. It's the water moccasins. You won't see them — and you won't see them coming."
That's the keynote, right there. Every operator I coach is managing the alligators they can see: the loud customer, the missed shift, the broken POS. Meanwhile the water moccasins — the silent risks they don't know about — are the ones that actually take the business down.
Years later I was canoeing in the Boundary Waters on the US–Canada border and found a fresh bear paw print on the portage trail. A bear had walked the same path we were walking. We never saw him. We just saw what he left behind. Same lesson, different wilderness.
It's not what you know that kills the business. It's what you can't see — yet.
Boundary Waters · US / Canada Border
Bear paw print on the trail. The bear walked this path. We never saw him. We just saw what he left behind.
Some risks announce themselves. Most don't.
From The Audience
Red to black
in seven months.
"I honestly don't know where my business would be without Mike. He coached me through taking a brand-new business from the red to the black in about seven months — something that's virtually unheard of in my field. Mike taught me how to shift from being an operator to being an owner — how to get out of my own way, automate intelligently, and delegate effectively — so I could focus my time and energy on what truly matters. The result wasn't just a healthier business, but dramatically lower stress and a much better quality of life."
Claire Kelly
Attorney
Now Available
Grow Smart.
Not Just Grow Fast.
Your Path to Freedom: Master Your Transformation from Operator to Owner.
Part field manual, part flight plan. Inside: how to design the systems that deliver consistent results, build a team that operates independently, track the metrics that actually matter, and finally make the mindset shift from operator to owner — so the business serves your life, not the other way around.
Part of the Freedom: Operator to Owner Series
The Flight Plan · Free 5-Lesson Course
Five ratings.
Five lessons.
One inbox.
Every other morning for ten days, I'll send you one of the hardest-earned lessons from my logbook — and the exact business principle it taught me.
Stories from the cockpit. Frameworks for the boardroom. Zero fluff. Unsubscribe any time — but you won't want to.
Delivered every other day · Five lessons total · No spam
- Day 1Single-Engine
When the only engine is you.
- Day 3Multi-Engine
The redundancy principle.
- Day 5Helicopter
Three controls. One altitude.
- Day 7Glider
No engine. No excuse.
- Day 9Float Plane
The risks you don't see coming.
Beyond The Cockpit
Stories that make the
keynote land.
Roaring Springs · AZ
I thought I'd seen the Grand Canyon.
I parked, looked out, and said "wow, the Grand Canyon is amazing." Then I walked further down the trail and realized — I wasn't even looking at it yet. Most owners have the same problem.
Brookfield, WI · 2017
The Governor in the cake line.
Wisconsin First Lady Tonette Walker invited me to her women's event as a vendor — weeks after I opened the only Nothing Bundt Cakes in the state. For years after, Governor Scott Walker would walk into my Brookfield bakery to pick up cake — and I'd let my high school staff serve him. They had no idea who he was. Just another guy buying cake for his wife. It always made me smile.
NBC Conference · 2019
Brookfield, celebrated.
When your franchise gets called to the stage at the national conference — that's not luck. That's a flight plan executed.
The Question Mike Leaves Every Audience With
Everyone says they
want something.
But they want
nothing more.
What do you want
more?
— Mike DeJong
Book Mike To Speak
Ready for
takeoff?
Tell us about your event. Mike personally reviews every inquiry within 48 hours.
·
Keynotes, half-day workshops, and franchise owner intensives.
·
In-person worldwide; virtual on request.
·
Tailored to your audience — franchise systems, leadership, ownership mindset.
Direct
mike@mikedejong.com