From Class Clown to CEO: Scott Montgomery's Journey to Success

Wayne Zell engages with Scott Montgomery to explore his journey with WorldGate, the insights from his books, and the significance of company culture. They delve into Scott's education, key entrepreneurial lessons, and leadership philosophy, emphasizing the role of mentors and a growth mindset. Scott shares personal challenges, adapts lessons for growth, and reveals the greatest lesson from his experiences. The conversation wraps up with details on Scott's book and audiobook narration, along with a final book recommendation.

Key Points

• Emphasizing a growth mindset and intentionality can significantly enhance both personal and professional success.

• Building strong partnerships and collaborative relationships is crucial for long-term success and navigating challenges.

• Effective leadership involves continuous learning, self-awareness, and fostering a culture of support and adaptability.

Timestamps

0:10 Introduction to the podcast and guest Scott Montgomery

3:41 Overview of WorldGate, Scott's books, and company culture

7:39 Scott's education and key entrepreneurial lessons

14:29 Scott's personal challenges and leadership philosophy

19:54 The role of mentors and the importance of a growth mindset

24:22 Adapting lessons for personal and professional growth

27:54 The greatest lesson from Scott's experiences

29:07 Availability of Scott's book and audiobook narration

30:23 Final book recommendation and closing remarks

Quotes

"We don't have any turnover because the growth mindset is something we foster in our culture here."

- Scott Montgomery

"Culture is a very important aspect to me. Someone who's got a learner mindset, who's got a growth mindset, who is, roll up your sleeves and get it done."

- Scott Montgomery

"I define success by being able to talk with you, to be sharing stories with folks that need the information I have."

- Scott Montgomery

Transcript

Wayne Zell: Hi. This is Wayne Szell, and welcome to Blueprint for Wealth, your fast paced video cast designed to help you realize your personal dreams of wealth and freedom, featuring special guests and educational topics that hopefully are of interest to you as an entrepreneur. Today, I have a special guest. He's a friend of mine. He's an a coauthor.

He's helped me with my book. He's written a couple of books himself, and his name is Scott Montgomery. Welcome, Scott.

Scott Montgomery: Thank you. Hi. Hi, Wade. How are you? Appreciate it.

Good to see you.

Wayne Zell: It's good to have you on, and, we've got some really good stuff to talk about. First of all, Scott recently released and wrote a book that's gotten, you know, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Amazon bestseller status. It's called How Did You Get Here? But before we get to that, I wanna know a little bit more about Scott's background because he's an entrepreneur. He's, he's running a corp a a company with his wife, and, they do government contracting.

And I'd like to know how you got there. How where did you come from? Where did you where did you grow up? What were some of the challenges early on, and how did you overcome? Tell us a little bit about your background.

Scott Montgomery: Well, that's got fifty four years in the making, but I'll try and condense it a little bit for you, Wayne. So Alright. But I but I appreciate that. I, I was, born in Daytona Beach, Florida. My forming years were outside of Philadelphia in Westchester, Pennsylvania.

I wasn't much of a stellar student. I was more of a an experiential learner, which made classroom education a little difficult for me. So, you know, I I I was known in school as, you know, class clown, class loudmouth, you know, center of attention kinda guy. That didn't really position me well for college, so I didn't actually attend college, successfully. I threw a couple classes at myself post high school.

But, I got really lucky when I got my first job at Bell Atlantic. I was, mentored really well. I was taken under the wings of, leadership, and I was provided opportunities that I was really able to maximize in my career. And that was probably we've moved quickly into my thirties and I think, late twenties. It was there that I started to realize that I wanted more of an entrepreneurial experience in my career.

So, you know, kinda mapping that back to high school and and my forming years, I really wanted to be more in the driver's seat than I wanted to be, managed. So I went into real estate, and I really enjoyed real estate. I, was invited to buy into a local, real estate chapter here at Keller Williams in Great Falls here in Virginia. I just recently sold that. So I sold real estate.

But then those folks at Bell Atlantic came calling a couple years later and said, hey. We'd really like you to consult with us. And there's where Worldgate was formed. And so I ended up being a consultant and a realtor and was more attracted to the consulting opportunities the last ten years, and therefore, WorldGate was able to grow. We have about a hundred employees now.

My wife has joined the firm as the president and CEO along with me, so we're cofounders and co owners. Gives us an opportunity to raise our children because we can tag team those activities and, grow the business together. We ended up finding ourselves in government contracting because these folks that were calling us were in public school systems. And we were attracted to the we were attracted to that work and how that can help the next generation of students.

Wayne Zell: What kind of work do you do at WorldGate?

Scott Montgomery: So the irony of me not being a good student and me now supporting school districts implementing their business systems is sort of a full circle moment for us because, we really we support school districts up and down the East Coast. We're primarily k 12 focused. We have some of the largest top 10 school districts as customers, and we really partner with our clients. So I've been able to take that mentoring I got in my early business and sort of apply that to how I relate with my customers as a consultant firm. And then I was also able to go back and see the value of education not having gotten mine for many years, how I can support the next generation through those systems.

So it's been a really nice sort of ride for me in that regard and very serendipitous in the waves that I've been riding. So yeah. And that brings you to today. So you know?

Wayne Zell: So you you've written a book. Originally, you wrote a book that you coauthored called Success Mindsets. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that book and how that came about.

Scott Montgomery: So success mindsets was of interest to me because I wanted to I wanted to take so in all that I just shared with you, there were moments where I thought legacy was important, and I think it's important to share with the next generation, specifically my family, the details of how I got here and what what what did it look like to have a low GPA and now sell systems to school districts and implement them and give back to the community. So in wanting to write a book, I started to talk to other authors, and they said the best way to get yourself recognized is to join a, a a group of folks, and I can't think of the word that when you call those a collective authors, you know, and and write your story. So I got a chapter in a book that talked about leadership because I think it's important to talk about business and leadership. And that gave me credentials then and the experience to go out and take it from there, write my own book. And that's exactly what I did about a year later.

So how did you get here lessons of unconventional success was, published a year ago?

Wayne Zell: When when you're hiring employees and you're advising people about hiring employees, what do you look for?

Scott Montgomery: Culture is a very important aspect to me. Someone who's got a learner mindset, who's got a growth mindset, who is, roll up your sleeves and get it done. I'm not always looking for expertise. I'm looking for intention. And so, the resume can give me experience and tell me where people have been, but when they get into my interview, if they're on time, if they're showing me they're interested, if they're citing examples of how they wanna grow and learn, my ask when I hire someone is they give me a year.

So we're not looking for indentured perpetuity for having hired someone. We're looking for someone who's in growth mindset and that we can maximize those skills for our clients and the and the employees.

Wayne Zell: So if it's if it's a growth mindset, but you're only looking for a year, don't you have a lot of

Scott Montgomery: turnover in the business? We don't have any turnover because the growth mindset is something we foster in our culture here, and our turnover rates are typically about 10%. And, just this year, we won an Inc Magazine and we just won this year, Inc Magazine's, best places to work. And in 02/2022, we won Washington Post best places to work. So our employee surveys foster what we look for, and we offer it here at Worldgate.

Wayne Zell: What what is it about the culture other than trying to generate a growth mindset that keeps people

Scott Montgomery: there? Collaboration, family first, recognizing where people wanna grow. We do a continual feedback, not an annual feedback. So we meet with our employees. The leadership teams meet with their employees every month.

We put satisfactory, not satisfactory training. We have an entire department dedicated to people being able to call in and say, hey. I need training in a specific skill set. Can you help me execute on that? Find it, get it.

And we we offer that kind of, support for our employees.

Wayne Zell: Excellent. Excellent. Now there's a new book or a newer book. You wrote it a couple years ago, but it's it's, it's relatively new. Because I wrote a book a couple of years ago, but it didn't come out for a whole year.

Right. And and it's called How Did You Get Here? How did you get here? Where does the title come from?

Scott Montgomery: So the irony of that title is that most of the folks that knew me in my younger years when they see the success that I bring to the table now say, oh my god. How did you, as if to say all people, get here. So, you know, it it struck me.

Wayne Zell: I got it.

Scott Montgomery: Also, it's also a metaphor for the reader. How did you I want this to be something the reader can take the examples from and apply them to their own storyline because I'm not unique. I'm not different. I'm just surprisingly successful for having applied what I what I talk about in the book.

Wayne Zell: Yeah. And you never stopped learning. I know that, you went back to school, not too long ago and graduated from the University of Virginia. Tell us about that and what what you did in that regard.

Scott Montgomery: Yeah, I'm really proud of that. I ended up getting my degree in business administration. So I went back to school with my two kids, which was a really unique experience. And to do that, I took online courses while running a hundred person company. And it was hard work, but I think it was important.

First of all, I wanted to model that learning never stops. I want my kids to see that. And secondly, I wanted to have the credential. I wanted to have the diploma. And so I achieved that.

Wayne Zell: That's impressive. That's really impressive. And so now you have a degree from a great institution like the University of Virginia. How do you feel about that?

Scott Montgomery: It feels great. It feels like I closed a loop. I didn't do well in high school. I didn't go to college. And now I have my degree from one of the top universities in the country.

Wayne Zell: You're very inspiring, Scott. You are very inspiring. And I think you exemplify someone who has, you know, overcome a lot of challenges and have become very successful. Let me ask you about your thoughts on mindset and how that shaped your success.

Scott Montgomery: You know, I'll just tell you a quick story. I was watching The Crown. It's a good show on Netflix about the the monarchy. And one of the things that jumps out at me from a growth mindset perspective that, queen Elizabeth was, noted for in that show was when she decided to televise the monarchy because the people needed to see it, and that was not okay with prior monarchy or prior thinking. And the ability for her to get in front of the TV and share with the world what it looked like to be inside the monarch was, to me, the perfect example of a growth mindset.

Wayne Zell: Well, if you watch all the way to season six, which I have watched the whole thing all the way through, she's also adaptable in the sense that she allows for her son to get divorced and then get remarried

Scott Montgomery: and still be

Wayne Zell: in line for the throne. So I yeah. True. She's she had a she she was adaptable. I don't know if she was a really a growth

Scott Montgomery: I know. It's a tough one. It's a tough one. It's a tough one.

Wayne Zell: But that's a good that's a good analogy. I like that. I like that. So how do how do readers unpack all these lessons and and adapt them and and use them for their, you know, daily approach to becoming the best entrepreneur, the best business person, the best father, the best partner?

Scott Montgomery: I love that you asked that question, Wayne. And it's it really is where I start to get excited about the book. I don't love so much talking about me on this book. For some reason, I've noted that, you know, I've been on NBC. I've been on CBS.

I've been around the country talking about this book, and I'm realizing I don't really love to be in front of the camera. But one of the things I really like about this book is how it can be interpreted. So one of the things I did was hired a seasoned professional coach alongside of myself being one, And we went through each chapter and said, how do we wanna make this about the reader? How can people take what's being shared with them in this legacy story and apply it to what their legacy story is. So at the end of each chapter, I ask five questions, and they're very much related to how do you interpret the stories you just read in the vein of the topic, not how Scott did it.

That make sense?

Wayne Zell: Yeah. And I that I was just gonna go there. I I you know, you you and I, I guess, think alike, but I was just gonna go there. At the end of each chapter of the book are five excellent questions. Like, here's a good one.

Where does your mind feel most at ease, Scott? That's one of your questions.

Scott Montgomery: Right? And so that's you're talking about mindset, you're talking about, the, skill I forget the chapter title, but it's, I should know it. Right? It's my own book. Self care.

Wayne Zell: It's mindset and self care.

Scott Montgomery: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's important that you take that chapter and recognize that there's cortisol coming through your body all day, especially if you live in Northern Virginia and just drive from your home to the office.

You know what I mean? And so that that question is a great one for when you're trying to understand self care and mindset. And, again, I hired a leadership coach to help me with those questions. Her name's Ellen Fulton. She's prominent in the industry, and she's actually who certified me.

And I wanted her input on that, and that question now introduces to the reader. You've heard what Scott does, but what do you do? What what is it you agree with? And that's why I asked that question. And so there's nothing for me yet.

I'm still working on how I can put my mind at ease.

Wayne Zell: Well, I'm gonna ask you one more question from the book, and then we can we can go on. What is the greatest lesson that you've taken away from all these stories, really?

Scott Montgomery: The the the I don't know that I've gotten a lesson yet, and I'll think about that as I describe what comes up for me when you ask that question. And what comes up for me is the interest people have in the topics that I have talked about. I I am floored by the fact that in my own attempts at a podcast, and we've got a couple episodes, and I'm I'm gonna revamp that and look look at that in the fall again. But every interview I've ever done, it comes down to relationships, self care, communication habits, all the things that I'm talking about, leadership, coaches, you know, and and all the things that we talk about, setting your goals and setting yourself up for success is it's fascinating to me how simple it can be and how everyone is interested in it. It's fascinating.

And everyone in the world Everyone is interested in it. Yeah.

Wayne Zell: I mean, there are books that are written on each of these chapters, and that that's why it you know, it's a it's a quick read, and I I highly recommend it, by the way. If anyone wants to get a copy of the book, Scott, how do they go about doing that?

Scott Montgomery: So I've got a a Simon and Schuster published book, so you can pretty much get it and order it from any bookstore. It's not on the shelves of of everywhere, but we've got it on the shelves in a couple beach stores. We've got it at Barnes and Nobles in a couple locations. And Amazon is probably your best best location. I've got the audiobook out.

It's also gonna be on Amazon, and, you know, it's easy to find.

Wayne Zell: Did you narrate it? Did you narrate it yourself?

Scott Montgomery: I did. I did, and I actually did two rounds. I, the first round sounded so janky that I did the second one, and I just wrapped it up last week. So we're overriding the first one with the new one this month. So wait a few weeks in doing that.

I didn't have any fun doing that, but okay. I thought it was awful. I mean

Wayne Zell: well, look. Your book is, what, a 50 pages? Yeah. 49 or whatever. I did a 365 page book with, you know, math examples and stuff like that.

So

Scott Montgomery: God bless you. Took me

Wayne Zell: two took me two solid weeks to do it, but, this is not about me. It's about you. And so if if people wanna get the book, they can go to Amazon. The name of the book is How Did You Get Here? Lessons of Unconventional Success by Scott Montgomery.

It's a bestseller all around the country, and I highly recommend it. And, Scott, again, you're you've taught us some great lessons today, and, I wish you the best. And thank you for being a special guest on Blueprint for Wealth.

Scott Montgomery: Wayne, I can't appreciate it enough. Thank you too. I really appreciate it. Looking forward to spreading the word.

Wayne Zell: Awesome. And next time, join up for another special guest on Blueprint for Wealth. Have a great day.