Ep 105- Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and The Texas Business Advantage with Steve Montgomery

Transcript

Transcripts are generated by machine learning, so typos may be present.

Chris Hanslik: In this episode, you will meet Steve Montgomery, President and CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. Steve shares his views on what he thinks makes business owners successful, as well as why he believes Texas, and more specifically, Fort Worth, is a great place to own and operate a business. Steve, I want to welcome you to Building Texas Business. Thanks for taking the time to come on the podcast.

Steve Montgomery: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to have this conversation.

Chris Hanslik: So let’s get started. Please introduce yourself to the listeners. You’re the CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce. Most people may think they know, but what does the Chamber of Commerce do? What is the focus and mission of the organization?

Steve Montgomery: Absolutely. I’m honored to have the opportunity to tell people about it. It’s a lot of fun. I’m fairly new to the organization, born and raised in Fort Worth, and have a business background and a public policy advocacy background. I’ve been with the Chamber about two and a half years as President and CEO. I primarily took on this role because I’m passionate about the success of Fort Worth business and my community. My fidelity and commitment to Fort Worth runs very deep. I saw this as a way at this stage in my life and my career to really add value to my community by helping companies that call Fort Worth home—help them be successful, help them stay here, and keep Fort Worth competitive in terms of being able to attract companies to move to Fort Worth. For those that call Fort Worth home, how can we advocate for them? How can we help them connect with one another, with customers, with suppliers and vendors to grow their business? And how do we create a regulatory and legal environment by which companies can thrive in Fort Worth? The mission of the Chamber is to advocate, to convene, to engage with companies on retention and expansion, as we call it—retaining companies in Fort Worth and helping them grow.

Chris Hanslik: That’s great. So how did you find yourself there? You said it’s new; you’ve been in business. Give us a little bit of your history in business and how you found your way to this current position.

Steve Montgomery: Sure. The majority of my career has been in small business. I helped start and grow a small healthcare information technology firm originally based in Dallas. We moved it to Arlington a little bit later on. So we grew it. I was there about 16 or 17 years. It kind of fit a niche market within healthcare, but we sold into the hospital market and into the public health market. So a lot of government contracting kind of things, but also directly to hospitals. We grew it—I was the fourth employee. We grew it, and then we exited the company in 2017, sold it to a larger partner within that space. It was a great experience. I came in the door helping get some government contracts for them—public health entities, states across the country—and then we expanded that into direct hospital sales. So I learned, and what I like to tell my small business members here in Fort Worth is that being a small business person, I know what it’s like to wake up on Monday morning and worry about how I’m going to make payroll on Friday. That’s a lot of what our small business folks face.

Chris Hanslik: So Steve, the healthcare industry is obviously fascinating and innovative. Going back to that experience starting as the fourth employee, what were some of the things you learned along the way in a startup that you think would be helpful for someone out there today thinking about starting their own company or joining a small company to help it grow?

Steve Montgomery: That’s a great question. The biggest takeaway, the biggest lesson I learned, is that success in a small company depends on your willingness to do whatever needs to be done at any given time. If it’s accounting, it’s like, “Well, okay, I know how to balance my checkbook. Let me see if I can figure out how this accounting system works.” It’s just being willing to do whatever the organization needs. Now, obviously, as you grow, you want to make sure that you bring in the experts in accounting and HR; you don’t want to be reckless with it. But as you’re growing, it’s a willingness to say, “Oh, that needs to be done. I’ll go do it. I’ll get it done.” It’s not, “That’s not my job, and somebody else needs to figure that one out.”

Chris Hanslik: And that transition can be tough, right? Because if you take that attitude—”I’m wearing all hats. I’ll do whatever, balance the checkbook, clean the restroom, do whatever”—learning to let go, to delegate, and knowing when the right time is to grow are also learning curves and challenges the small business owners face.

Steve Montgomery: Absolutely. And, you know, kind of that old analogy of boiling a frog and slowly increasing the heat, it’s sort of that phenomenon when you’re taking on that role: “Yes, I’ll do that. Yes, I’ll do that. Yes.” Pretty soon you’re boiling, and you didn’t realize where you’d gotten there. But, like you say, it’s also a willingness to say, “All right, I’m going to hand this off.” That’s about building teams, right? Making sure you’re… one of the things that, in terms of leadership, is the benefit of wearing all those hats is you do have some semblance of understanding of how that works within your company. And as you build your team, knowing their challenges and knowing what they’re faced with helps you, I think, be a better leader.

Chris Hanslik: And you’re right. I do love talking about building teams because no company can grow and reach its full potential unless you’re able to build a good team, a strong, cohesive team. And that sounds easy; it’s much harder to do in practice because you stub your toe along the way. What were some of the things that you found successful in building successful teams in the companies you were with prior, even now at the Chamber?

Steve Montgomery: Yeah, absolutely. So, like you said, you’re going to stub your toe. You’re not always going to be right. You’re going to think that you’re bringing in the right talent or the right person. I have this note on my desk when it comes to evaluating someone to hire as you’re growing your team. It’s the three C’s: Character (do they share your values?), Chemistry (do they fit in with the current team?), and then Competency (can they do the work?). I just keep going back to it, and that’s why it literally is a note on my desk, because as we hire people, it’s like, “All right, how am I answering those questions?” Occasionally, you’re going to get it wrong. And yes, I’ve made mistakes everywhere I’ve been. I’ve hired someone that just felt like they fit all those things. They look great on paper, but the chemistry wasn’t there with the team for whatever reason. So you have to be willing to… my mantra is “hire slow, fire fast” because you’re doing a lot of harm to the organization if you’ve got someone who’s not working out. There are hard costs and soft costs with bad hires, right? I think that’s important. I like to say here at the Chamber, and I’ve been able to slowly build a team—especially my executive team—that they’re all smarter than me. They’re all very capable in their special areas. They’re a whole lot smarter than me, but I’m taller than all of them. So I’ve got that going for me.

Chris Hanslik: You got that going.

Steve Montgomery: Yeah. You said it, and I’ve heard it so many times, and I believe in it: “hire slow, fire fast.” It really makes a difference. It’s interesting; I’ve heard the three C’s before from other entrepreneurs. I think a lot of companies have a similar thought, or the leaders have thoughts, maybe articulated in a different vocabulary, but it’s the same thing. You’ve got to make sure there’s a cultural fit. The competency you have to test for, but at some point that’s base level, right? You’ve got to be able to do the job. And there are lots of people who probably do the job but aren’t necessarily the right fit culturally. That’s where the real test comes in. And sometimes, it’s obvious in an interview, but not always. You won’t know until you get them in.

Chris Hanslik: That’s right.

Steve Montgomery: And a lot of times I’ve hired on culture, and that’s something I think as a leader is incumbent upon me to help define for the organization what kind of culture we want, whether it’s how we treat customers, how we interact with the community, our partners and peers, and how we interact with one another. The leader sets that tone. As I look for people to hire and as I help grow my team, it’s like, and we’re all imperfect, right? As I evaluate my team, I’m like, “She is really good at this. He probably has some growth that could occur here.” It is to help provide those pathways to growth and urge that training and upskilling. I just think it’s a great opportunity to build the culture. And sometimes you’re going to get it right, and sometimes you’re not.

Chris Hanslik: That’s right. And I think we’re all probably our own worst critic. We’re a little bit too hard on ourselves at times. We’ve got to learn, “Hey, learn.” To me, you want to encourage your people to have some autonomy and push themselves so that they don’t have a fear of making a mistake. To me, we’re not perfect. It’s going to happen. Just learn from it. Let’s not make the same mistake twice. Certainly not three times. So that’s great. Let’s turn back to Fort Worth and the role of the Chamber. What are some of the emerging trends you’re seeing that you believe are going to be attractive to businesses in your area?

Steve Montgomery: Absolutely. Fort Worth is really having a moment, and I mean that in a real positive way. We’ve got some great leadership here. Our mayor is phenomenal. She is a unique talent. I’ve been watching political leaders for most of my career, and she is truly a unique talent. We’re very blessed and fortunate to have her civic political leadership locally. Fort Worth just crested a million people, which a lot of people don’t realize. We are the 10th largest—we just passed Jacksonville, Florida.

Chris Hanslik: Okay.

Steve Montgomery: And so we’re the 10th largest city in the United States. Uniquely, our friends to the east—as I like to say, downriver of us—they’re the ninth-largest city in the country, but they’re mostly built out, right? They don’t have a lot of room to grow within Dallas proper. But Fort Worth is 350 square miles of land area, half of which is not yet developed. So we’ve got enormous growth opportunities. We’re uniquely situated in the logistics world—we’re uniquely situated strategically, geographically. We’ve got great infrastructure in terms of our airport. We have a growing workforce. We’ve got phenomenal higher education entities and a great community college. So we’ve got a lot of those really phenomenal assets to leverage our growth. And we’re a community of, I would say—I don’t want to be cliché about it—but we try to find “yes.” If a company wants to grow here, wants to establish itself or move here, our answer is yes, how do we make it work? While there’s always room for improvement in processes and all, I think the attitude, the mindset, is “yes, how do we make it work here?” Which is not shared across the country in terms of community leadership. I see a lot of people voting with their feet because we’re the fastest-growing large city in the country. People vote with their feet and are relocating here, not just to Texas, but to Fort Worth, Texas. And, like I said, we’ve got room to grow.

Chris Hanslik: Well, I could say personally, as an SMU alum, I love hearing you refer to TCU as a community college. I couldn’t let that one go by. That was good. I’ll tell you, you talk about the migration to Texas. We see it. Since really since 2020, the number of corporate conversions we had—none at this firm—for companies moving out of California, other states too, but primarily California to Texas. Literally, I bet we have at any given time, I know right now at least three that are in process. A lot coming to the greater Houston area where we are, but really just all over Texas. We’ve done it for companies that are in the Dallas, Fort Worth area, Greater Austin, but they’re coming here because of what you mentioned: it’s a friendly business environment, a friendly legislative kind of mindset towards that, trying to make business, doing business easier with a more, I love what you say, that “yes” mentality. And Fort Worth, you got the blessing of Landman and Taylor Sheridan putting you all on the map.

Steve Montgomery: If I were to look out my window, I can see where Demi Moore’s office is. How about that? But you’re right. If you think about the brand of Dallas—and I love teasing Dallas, but I have plenty of good friends over there, and it’s a great place—they benefited from the Dallas Cowboys, they’ve benefited from the TV show, and that sort of international brand of Dallas, which is phenomenal. And we’ve certainly benefited from that. But shows like Landman and other kinds of things, our movie industry and film industry, are really growing here. And that’s the kind of thing that introduces Fort Worth to the world. And people, like you talk about, coming from California and others, I meet them all the time. I ask them, “Well, how was the cultural transition?” And without fail, people love it. They love it here. Once they get here, they go, “Wow, y’all have a phenomenal museum, a phenomenal zoo, great restaurants, great quality of life, wonderful neighborhoods”—all the things that people care about quality of life. We’ve got it here. We don’t necessarily have great mountains, but we’ve got great places to live. And so when you get here, you’re like, “Okay, I get it.” We were talking earlier about authenticity. I think that’s a distinguishing feature of Fort Worth: that authentic, sort of relational way that we do business.

Chris Hanslik: Yeah, I love that. Innovation plays a key in any industry at certain points in time. Let’s talk about it. I’m sure you talk about that in your role now, but how did you also, maybe in your prior role, encourage people who were under you in your organization to be innovative, to stretch themselves in order to stretch the organization?

Steve Montgomery: I think, you know, rewarding boldness in terms of… boldness comes with success and failures. Don’t penalize someone for making a mistake if they did it for the right reasons—that they were really trying something new, they thought would be innovative, they thought would add value or improve a process. Reward that mindset and be cognizant of the fact that sometimes you’re going to get it wrong, but the intent was sound and the rationale behind it as you got to that point was sound. So, providing that sort of grace to get it wrong, but encouraging people to say, “Let’s figure out better ways to do this. If it takes 10 steps, is there a way we can make it in eight?” And just sort of encouraging that kind of mentality of process improvement, because that process improvement might really save me a bunch of work and be a better experience for my customers.

Chris Hanslik: Yeah, so true. I love to kind of talk about people’s personal journey and leadership in business. I think it’s been said and written, and I think we all believe we learn a lot more sometimes from failures than successes. Is there a setback or failure that you came across in your career that really stands out as a pivotal moment, where without that setback you wouldn’t have had the learning and maybe the growth opportunity that you experienced?

Steve Montgomery: That’s a great question. I’ve been very blessed with a good, dumb luck—a lot of my career far exceeded my field coverage, as they say. But yeah, there are times in different steps in my career where I may have stayed in a position longer than I should have because I thought I was going to figure it out. It didn’t feel like the right fit, but if I hung in there, maybe I’ll figure it out and it’ll work, where I should have probably pulled the ripcord earlier. I don’t want to say overstayed my welcome, but I probably stayed longer than I should have. I learned that, and so detecting those things. I had a very stable career. Ten years at various jobs have typically been pretty long, but just looking for those, trying to recognize when there’s not the right fit and occasionally found the wrong fit. And it took me a while to say, “All right, hey, all right, give up, move on, cut your losses and move on.”

Chris Hanslik: Well, I think you hit on something there that, if you think about the characteristics of entrepreneurs, kind of taking a risk or following a passion, I think we’re of the mindset that, “Well, I’m not a quitter. I’m going to stick with it.” And I think it’s that kind of juxtaposition, if you will, right, of this mindset: “I can do anything if I set my mind to it, and I’m not going to give up, and I’m going to keep…” But you’ve got to know when, okay, sometimes you do work through it and you come out the other end. And sometimes that light, it’s not the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s a train, and you’ve got to get out of the tunnel. And that’s just tough, right? I’m sure you’ve experienced it, to know that. And maybe that leads to staying somewhere a little too long or pursuing a strategy or a product line a little longer than you should, to know that, “Okay, it’s time to stop.”

Steve Montgomery: Yeah, and that’s, you’re exactly right. If you think of entrepreneurs, they tend to be tenacious. And there are so many success stories about that tenacity leading to success. But there’s also, I think, an equal number of stories of, “I probably should have pivoted earlier.” And once I did pivot, I recognized, “Look at this pathway, it’s perfect, and it’s what I needed to do.” So you’re right. There’s no one simple answer. It’s more of an art than a science, and you’ve just got to follow your gut sometimes.

Chris Hanslik: Yeah, so true. Speaking of kind of in that same vein, when we talked about opportunities in your region and things that you see, what are some of the headwinds or challenges you think are out there that business owners need to be aware of and tuned into to maybe prepare for?

Steve Montgomery: Yeah. Unfortunately, in this position, I get to talk to business owners literally every day—large and small, across scale, across industry. Some of the things I’ve picked up lately are a general optimism for the coming year, a little bit of concern about some of the global headwinds. Frankly, we’ve got some manufacturers here that are concerned about tariffs and the impacts of inputs and their processes. And then sort of the economic uncertainty that comes with all of those things. And then global headwinds, international relations and trade and things like that, they’re impacting a lot of companies—a lot more than I would have thought locally. So those are the kinds of things, and just people maybe sitting on a little bit of cash because of the uncertainty of what’s coming up. Other than that, though, most people have general optimism about their own prospects and what they’re going to be achieving this year. So I would say general optimism with a little bit of guardedness here and there.

Chris Hanslik: I would say that’s pretty consistent with what I’ve been hearing probably for the last, going back to the beginning of ’24, right? Obviously, it was a lot of up and down with the tariffs that were going to come and didn’t come. I think people started to learn to maybe tune that noise out a little bit and know that they’re maybe not overreacting too soon. But I feel like there’s some cautious optimism. And I think, the overall Texas markets, because of the things we’ve already talked about driving business here, there’s a lot around energy, whether it’s traditional or alternatives. Obviously, transportation logistics. Here in Houston, we have the port. And I know you all, the Metroplex, is kind of a central centralized point for the country. I think those are all fundamentals that are sustainable given where the economy’s going. And so I think that bodes well for people that want to start a business in Texas or want to grow a business in Texas.

Steve Montgomery: Absolutely. Yeah, I think all those things you mentioned—our location, a regulatory environment—it makes our economy, statewide economy, and certainly local Houston and Fort Worth and others, more resilient. There’s a resilience to those other fluctuations, the national fluctuations and global fluctuations. We seem to be a little bit more insulated from those, but not totally.

Chris Hanslik: You just brought up a question I hadn’t thought of until just now. How much, because Texas is a very proud state—you and I are both proud Texans—and then we have the Houstonians are pretty proud, as are Dallas and Fort Worth and Austin. We all are proud of our own territory. What’s being done, if anything, for the leaders like in your position, but your counterparts in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, to collaborate? Because yes, Houston wants the headquarters or Dallas wants the corporate headquarters to locate there, but the mindset is, at least come to Texas, because what’s good for Texas is good for all of Texas. Is there that collaboration? And if so, do you feel like it’s in a healthy way, or could it be improved? And if so, how?

Steve Montgomery: Right. That’s a great question. Yes, there’s collaboration. At some levels, we’re competitors, right? I mean, our X, Y, Z company comes to Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, or Austin. So, on some levels, we’re competing, even peer to peer, and we’re even competing sometimes with our non-peers. That’s just sort of how that goes. But there are definitely collaborations in terms of what Chambers do. I’ve worked with the Great Houston Partnership folks a lot, the Dallas Regional Chamber, all the big city Chambers. There’s a group called Metro Eight, and that’s the largest Chambers, the city’s Metro Chambers in the state. And we collaborate routinely on public policy issues. There’s a lot of alignment. There might be something special for the oil industry or shipping that Houston might say, “We’re tailoring this one for us.” But generally speaking, we have a lot of alignment policy-wise. What’s good for Fort Worth is good for Houston. What’s good for Austin. And so we try to speak as a larger unified voice on those kinds of issues because we can get the attention of our local legislative delegations and say, “This is important for Fort Worth businesses. This is important for Houston businesses,” and build those coalitions and either prevent bad bills from getting passed or getting good bills passed. So a lot of good collaboration there. And then the state economic development infrastructure at the state level is really good. And they’re kind of a central point for a lot of companies that want to move to Texas will contact them. And then they’ll alert all of us and say, “Hey, this company is looking at Texas. You’ll approach them and make your pitch.”

Chris Hanslik: Yeah. Well, that’s good to hear. I mean, I’m not surprised, but you don’t really hear, in the general day-to-day business world, you don’t hear a lot about that. But I kind of assumed it had to be going on at some level. And again, it’s delicate because there is a competition plus a collaboration. So I’m sure it makes it very interesting. But that’s good to hear. And I think that certainly leads to and has resulted in a lot of success Texas has seen.

Steve Montgomery: Yeah, the more unified and on the same page we can be, the easier it is for the legislators, too, to say, “All right, here’s where business is. Here’s where Texas business is.”

Chris Hanslik: Yeah, so true. Going back to your new position at the Chamber, when you took over, what were some of the things that you felt like you’ve done to kind of implement maybe your way, whether it’s subtle or not subtle cultural changes or implementations that you felt like you have implemented, and maybe some of the challenges in doing that as the new incoming CEO?

Steve Montgomery: Yeah, I would say in a couple of areas. One is a return to focus on smaller business. Fort Worth is still, and I mentioned, we’re blessed with some Fortune 500s, but most of our business profile is mid, small, and mid-market. And so, having the Fort Worth Chamber focusing on those smaller members, the American Airlines of the world want us to focus on the success of the local businesses. And so that’s why they invest as they do in us. They want us to go follow that mission: How do we support and grow local businesses? So one of the things I’ve done since I’ve been here is redirecting our focus on that. Some communities are different. Dallas is a little bit different. They’ve got a lot of Fortune 500s. So their Chamber tends to focus more on the big plays with the big players, which is great, and it works for them. That doesn’t work in Fort Worth. And so what I’ve done here is returning that focus, and having been a small business owner, I think I bring some credibility to that conversation. I truly can sit across the table from a small business owner and say, “I sat in your chair, and I know the stress you’re under.” And so that was one thing. And then on the advocacy side, that was a large piece of my background on policy advocacy. So we’ve grown our advocacy on the local level in terms of just fixing people’s problems. A company wants to grow their footprint, and they’re trying to get permits and certificates of occupancy and doing all the things that everyday businesses have to deal with from the city. And so how do we help solve some of those problems? Somebody’s permit is stuck on somebody’s desk. How do we get it moved down in the process? So leveraging those relationships and doing those kinds of things—business advocacy and then policy advocacy, like I mentioned, whether it’s an ordinance or a law that’s being considered, making sure we’re weighing in and impacting the outcomes.

Chris Hanslik: Very good. Looking back over your experience and your career and what you’re doing now, how would you describe that Texas entrepreneurial spirit?

Steve Montgomery: It’s robust. It’s really robust. If I was thinking of a word, it’s just… I will tell you one of my favorite parts about this gig is—and I grew up here, so I feel like I know a lot about Fort Worth, and I do—but the favorite part about it is how much I’ve learned about Fort Worth. My favorite experiences are going to a business owner, going to a business’s location and talking about how they do, what’s their unique process, what’s their secret sauce, so to speak, and then saying, “Give me the shop tour.” And someone who’s built a company, an entrepreneur who’s built a company, if they’re giving you the shop tour, “Here’s what I built,” to see the passion, see the energy, see the pride of what they’ve built and showing it off, it’s just an incredible experience. And I love that.

Chris Hanslik: It’s funny you say that because we talk about that here. I think with our clients, one of the best things we can do is go to their office and get to see more than just the people we deal with on a regular basis. Their team, maybe we’ve heard of a name, but then doing a tour and letting them show us their home. And it’s powerful. It’s fun to see because, like I said, everyone has a unique story. It’s really the origin of this podcast, as I was mentioning to you, was the entrepreneurial spirit is so unique and so cool. When you’re around it, it’s infectious. And why not create a forum to let entrepreneurs tell their story?

Chris Hanslik: There’s always learning in it that someone else can learn from someone else’s past and journey. So it’s cool to hear you say that you are in a unique seat because that’s kind of your job every day, right?

Steve Montgomery: Yeah. And like you said, I insist on going out to their place of business. “I’d love to come meet you in your office and get the shop tour.” And like you said, you just learn so much. I think that that’s wonderful.

Chris Hanslik: Well, as we wrap up, let’s just talk a couple of personal questions. What is one of your favorite Texas or Fort Worth traditions?

Steve Montgomery: I love the Stock Show Rodeo. Y’all just wrapped up. We just wrapped up 23 days. I grew up going to those. I think I went to six rodeos this year. We buy tickets and take our members and do a lot of entertaining at these things, but it’s so much fun. I really, really enjoy it. My wife enjoys it. That’s probably my favorite Fort Worth tradition. I also love, more broadly, the Texas OU game. I’m a Longhorn, so Texas OU weekend is one of my favorite traditions as well.

Chris Hanslik: I do. I’ve got two Sooners. My two daughters are both Sooners. Yeah, I didn’t have a choice. That’s where they went. I know. I grew up obviously not understanding the north of the Red River side of it, now deeply crimson and cream in our family. You know, I expected you might say the Fort Worth Stock Show. We’re on the eve of the Houston Livestock Show here, and so it’s a similar Texas tradition, heritage celebration, and we’re definitely looking forward to that. Okay, last question. Do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue?

Steve Montgomery: Tex-Mex.

Chris Hanslik: All right. I love them all. Joe T. Garcia’s?

Steve Montgomery: Yeah, Joe T.’s is pretty good. We’ve got a few hidden little jewels up here. You come to town, I’ll show you some Tex-Mex.

Chris Hanslik: Okay. Deal. I’m going to take you up on that. Well, Steve, thanks for taking the time and not just sharing your story, but Fort Worth’s story. You’re doing great things. And obviously, Fort Worth, as you said, is really one of the emerging communities in our state, given all that’s going on there.

Steve Montgomery: Well, thank you for that. Thank you for the opportunity. This has been a heck of a lot of fun.

Chris Hanslik: Good. Well, thanks again, and we’ll talk soon. Thank you.

That’s it for this episode of Building Texas Business. Don’t forget to check out the show notes at boyermiller.com/podcast for insights and resources from today’s conversation. Learn more about how Boyer Miller can help your business grow at boyermiller.com. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time.