From Culture To Cash: How Leaders Scale With Discipline

Add value, not noise. Leadership expert Monte Wyatt offers actionable leadership advice on how to scale the leader to grow the business, boost profits, and enhance employee engagement and retention. Get access to effective mindset tools such as abundance mentality and ownership, as well as emotional intelligence techniques that give leaders a competitive advantage in the AI era. Find effective management tools and techniques that build a high-performance culture.

www.AddZerosNow.com

Amazon purchase book- Pulling Profits Out of a Hat: Adding Zeros to Your Company Isn't Magic

Transcript

Recording Started

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hi everyone, welcome to the Jumping Entrepreneurship Podcast. Today we have Monty Wyatt. Today's guest is someone who helps leaders stop spinning their wheels and start adding zeros. Monty Wyatt is the CEO of adding zeros in security development and one of the world's top coaches in organizational development. In 2025, he was ranked as number three global guru for organizational culture professionals, a testament to the impact uh he's had on leaders and companies worldwide. Um, with one uh more than 25 years of experience in leadership, business, and personal development. Monty um works directly with CEOs and executive teams who are serious about scaling their performance and having uh their impact multiplied. His brand promise is bold and clear. Advanced carriers transform companies deliver exceptional results. Welcome, Monty.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Thank you for uh the opportunity to chat chat with you. Look forward to it.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Great. I gave a snippet of your gigantic accomplishments, but do you want to add anything more?

SPEAKER_01 1:27

No, you you did a great job. It's uh it's been a great career. Look forward to talking more about it. So, no, you did a wonderful job.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Thank you so much, Monty. Um, let's talk about this adding zeros. How did you come up with the idea of starting this company?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Well, for the last uh 22 years, I have been working with CEOs and executive teams on uh bringing clarity to how they lead and manage their organizations. And the outcome of what I do is that we add zeros to their bottom line, to their top line, and to every aspect of their business, from culture to uh uh to engagement to retention to acquisition of customers. So my goal is to add zeros in every aspect of my customer's business, and that's what we focus on.

unknown 2:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Um can you elaborate when you mean adding zeros? What with what perspective? From what perspective are you actually seeing adding zeros?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

So in adding zeros, I want to help grow, uh, grow their bottom line and grow their impact that they're having with their team. And that's the whole point of adding a zero instead of 100, it's 1,000. Instead of 1 million, it's 10 million. And so we are we're adding zeros to the impact of the organization and the results they're getting in every area. And and I think it's important just to note that the we add zeros in not just results of financials, but in results of how people are interacting and engaged and how they're building the culture and environment of an organization because that drives the results of a business as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

That sums it up very greatly. Thank you. Um when you said 25 years of experience in leadership, that's a lot of experience. So how did you graph out your experience with your ups and downs? And how did you actually end up with this idea of creating the company and helping others? What motivated you during this journey?

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Well, I I started out in the agricultural chemical industry. Uh, and I I spent 14 years in that in that industry with the same company, but survived three different mergers and seven different moves and about five different positions in the organization. And after the third merger, um it really wasn't the culture that I wanted to be a part of. It wasn't the leadership that I had hoped to work for. And so that really was a driver for me to go out on my own and help organizations be better leaders and better managers for their organizations. Because I really believe that a team is a reflection of the manager. And if the manager is weak, the team is going to be weak. So we have to grow the managers, we have to grow the leaders, and that's what I focus on is helping folks. But I that that's why I got into it was really because I was in an organization that did not have the leadership that I wanted to be a part of. And uh, so that's I I I want to create that atmosphere in every business that I work with. And so that's what I've been doing for the last uh 22 years is adding zeros, but uh 14 years before that in different roles within that company.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

I think that shows a true leadership quality in you um because um if somebody, most of the people, when they um come up um with a problem um or they experience a problem, they will try to find the reasons for it. And there is another set of people who say, hey, this is a problem I went through. Um, this is the possible solution, and I can bring in, and I can help others also move out from that problem. And I think that's what your company is truly about, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Absolutely. And when I when I think of the problems that a business faces, I I always look at is it a people problem or a process problem? And uh we can fix processes by improving the process, but we fix the people problem by leadership. We fix the people problem by management. And I think both are needed more than ever today. And I I define leadership and management a little different than everybody else. I view leadership as influence with passion and focus. You you have to be a great leader. You have to be able to influence others with passion and with focus. That's the emotion side. The management side, a manager is responsible for creating competent and productive team members. And I think that's the the logical side. So you have to balance the emotion side and the logical side as a leader and a manager. You need both skill sets. You can be a strong leader, but a weak manager, and you can be a strong manager and a weak leader. We need strength in both areas, and that's that's really what I help my clients do is grow in their leadership and their management skills by teaching them new aspects, by helping them see them uh reflection of what they're doing with their team and for more awareness, and to help them create better uh influence with their team and organization so they get greater results.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

Yeah, that's that I think is a very, very important aspect as um we are growing into this uh very volatile market um in corporate and other teams. There is more pressure not only just for individual contributors but also for the management and higher leadership. Um you have been working with the leadership for over 25 years. What is the kind of transformation in the leadership mindset that you have seen in the past five years with the uh technology improvements, with the new set of uh Gen C uh coming into place around leadership? What did you find the difference in leadership mindset?

SPEAKER_01 7:35

I think there's a a lot of a mindset that you have to have. And first of all, it's an abundance mindset. And an abundance mindset is there's more than enough. The opposite is scarcity, where there's not enough. And when I think about leadership in a business, abundance says there's always an answer. How can we? How can we find a way where scarcity says we don't know how? And I think that's very important to have a mindset of abundance so we can look for opportunities, we can find solutions to those challenges. And I think that's what leaders are are responsible for today. You know, you we've got AI out there. Uh, AI can't take care of the human aspect of it. And that's that's a big part of becoming a strong leader. I think leadership skills are going to be more important in the future because of that, where AI can do a lot of things, but it can't add that human aspect of it where we need to be helping others, we need to be supporting others, we need to be challenging others, we need to be coaching others to really that human aspect of success. So I think an abundant mindset is very powerful. The the second mindset that I think is is huge is what I call ownership for success. There's two components to that. One is we have to define what success is. So we have to be clear on how do we know if we're successful, how do we know if we're winning? Because everybody wants to win. Everybody wants to be successful. And the second part is taking ownership of that result that we're after. So ownership for success. You've got to define it, and then you've got to commit to it. That's ownership for success. So between those two points of mindset, I think it's a different way of thinking. I think it's a different way of getting results and finding a leadership trait in every one of us that can help fulfill the needs that are within our team and within their characteristics.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah, yeah, that is so true. Um, I see a lot of articles now mentioning about the challenges that leaders are facing uh with the new transformation of AI, uh, talking that the empathy, the emotional intelligence are the two major missing factors um in upcoming leaders nowadays. And it's not just about the deadlines, as you said, it's about how you handle the personalities. Uh, if you see around five or ten years back, people used to say, Hey, I can you know um train them on the personality, how to build the personality, but I need their technical skills, and now it's down the present thing, hey, I want them to have a particular personality trait, I can change train them technical skills, right? So it became quite opposite with with the transformation of AI. Um do you see that pattern of emotional intelligence and empathy being the key factor in leadership? And if you compare one leader with low emotional intelligence or empathy versus the leader who have medium to high score of empathy and emotional intelligence, how do you think it actually impacts how they handle the team?

SPEAKER_01 11:05

You know, when I when I think of emotional intelligence, I think about understanding our own emotions and why we respond the way we do, but also understanding other people's emotions and why they respond the way they do. And the big part of emotional intelligence is how to adapt to that. And so I think that is a huge, huge skill set that needs to be trained and can be trained and learned from every leader out there. And I think that's a emotional intelligence is is really the understanding of emotions in ourselves and with others. And when you do that, you're building greater trust, you're able to influence more effectively, and you're getting the results that you want because you're connecting with that individual more clearly. So I I really think emotional intelligence is a huge trait that everybody can work on, that everybody can grow in, because it's it is not only understanding ourselves, but it's understanding the people that we're working with so that we can maximize their skill sets, maximize their characteristics and the way they're thinking so we can get the results that we're after.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Yeah, that does make a lot of sense. Thank you, Monty. Um we have most of our audiences are parents who are chuggling um their work-life balance or who are starting their own company or having their own adventure. Um, any tips for them from the angle of um personal development and from the angle of leadership qualities uh that can help them to grow up in the ladder?

SPEAKER_01 12:43

You know, everybody talks about being better at time management. We really can't manage time. We've all got the same amount of time every day. We've got to manage our schedule. And I think that's a powerful thing is making sure that every leader, especially if you have a young family, uh you're you're balancing your family and your work time, you've got to uh control as much of your schedule as you can. And when I say control, you've got to guide it. How long are your meetings that you're having? How long are the conversations that you're conducting? And making sure that you're sticking to your schedule. It's not always possible, but you you've got to do the best that you can. You block off time to work on projects, just like they're a meeting that you're attending. You've got to be intentional with your time so you can manage that aspect of your schedule. And again, you can't manage time, you can only manage your schedule. So, how are you influencing who though who those that you're interacting with so you can control that energy, control your time, and make sure that you are getting the results that you want from the time that you're able to put in. And, you know, raising a young family is is definitely a good balancing act uh because you you you may come home for work, you spend some time with your kids, and then you go back to work. Uh you get your computer out, you start working some more. And I think you've got to find find your balance uh of that. But in the same breath, balance is a is a tricky word. There's there's different journeys and different time frames in our life or different seasons in our life when that we need more time in certain areas, that we need greater influence. So uh I'm not a big fan of the word balance. Uh I like it more of there's seasons that we've got to spend different areas of our time in different places so we get the results that we're after.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

That is a very sharp but very practical answer and suggestion. Thank you, Monty. And uh to the audience who don't know, Monty is also a very great um book author. Um, his book is also on um the top US plus. Um, and do you want to share anything about your um book and your experience with it? Any tips for the audience?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

You bet. Uh the name of my book is Pulling Profits Out of a Hat. And it's all about uh the things I've learned over the last 25 years of how businesses need to grow. And I call it the five disciplines. It's the five disciplines of exponential growth. And those five disciplines touch every aspect of the business, and I view it as discipline and discipline in strategy, discipline in business development, discipline in how we work with our people, discipline in execution, and discipline in our mission of our organization. And throughout the book, we give great examples of how uh large and small businesses have implemented uh these areas of discipline and what kind of impact that they they have had on their growth and what it means to their retention of employees, their acquisition of customers. And it touches every aspect. And when I when I say every aspect, it touches every aspect from leadership to management to hiring and training your team to systems and efficiencies to sales and marketing. And so you you really, as an entrepreneur, as a business leader, as a CEO or executive team member, you've got to be able to think about every aspect of the business, not just one area, because every area is connected to the other. When you you make a sale, you've got to deal with production. When you make a when you do marketing efforts, you've got to make sure that your salespeople are connected to it. So everything is connected. And that's a big part of uh pulling profits out of a hat. It makes it look simple, but it's a lot of hard work in the back end. And uh this was a great book, uh, like I said, of the last 20, 25 years of my experience of working with business leaders and the impact that uh you can have and the different disciplines that make it happen. And uh I I want to encourage you to really think about how disciplined is your organization in every aspect of it and where you can grow in that discipline area, because I think that's a that's a powerful thing. This is a an exercise of writing the book was a was a two-year process, a little over two years. And uh I I think I I learned a lot by doing it, just by getting my examples and getting my interactions with my customers, just to make sure that it was told telling good stories. And so it's a it's a great tool. I use it more as a resource guide or recommend it as a resource guide than just a book to read from front to cut uh front cover to back cover. It's more of a resource guide. When you need something on business development, you look in the business development area. If you need something in culture, you look in the mission area. So it's uh it's a great concept, and I I think it's something that every every leader can manage and and learn from uh in their growth as a leader.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

So again, to the audience, uh the book name is Pulling Prophets Out of the Hat. If you get some time, please do get it. I think it's going to be an amazing book. Again, it's Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestseller. So thank you, Monty, for sharing your experience through your book and through the podcast. Um, as we wrap up, I was also looking at your recent article on accountability in today's generation and today's workplace. Um, why can't we wrap up the call around your suggestions on accountability?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

You know, when I think of accountability, uh there's two different views of how people think of accountability. One is it's a negative, uh, a negative where you hold someone accountable, that there's a punishment at the end if they didn't achieve something. I view it the opposite way. Accountability is taking ownership for success. And uh part of a accountability is being committed to an outcome or committed to certain actions that you're going to take. And I take accountability for that result. I take accountability for my success. I take accountability for the actions that I commit to. And if I don't achieve it or if I have a problem, I'm responsible for finding a solution. And uh I'm responsible for fixing it if there's something that didn't go well. And so accountability needs to be viewed as a positive. We want to take accountability, we should take accountability for success. Uh and we gotta we gotta take that commitment and really grab a hold of it and take ownership for success. Going back to that mindset piece is you gotta have that ownership for success to really be truly accountable to your commitments.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

Accountability, yeah, very powerful word, uh, very easily misunderstood, but I love the way you have defined it. So, again, everyone, uh Monty Wyatt. Monty, again, thank you for your time and sharing a great nuggets and reminding us that scaling a business starts with scaling the leader. If you want to add zeros to your results, start by elevating your awareness, execution, and discipline.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, I I just want to share a couple last things that I would encourage. You know, part of part of uh growing a business and scaling the leader is having alignment in the leadership team. And I think alignment as a leadership team is more than just being in agreement. Alignment is about that we are all working towards the same goal, we're working toward the same outcome, and we're not putting one department over another. We are aligned in growing the business as a whole. And I I want to give a resource that each one of you can use to see how aligned your team is. And if you go to coachmonti.com slash podcast, you will get a complementary uh alignment scorecard that you can use with your executive team to see what areas that you are clearly aligned and areas you need to grow in your alignment. Uh, but again, that's coachmony.com slash podcast.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Thank you again, Monty. Lot of great resources you have shared with our audience from the podcast to the books to your golden nuggets of um uh you know wisdom in the podcast. Thank you once again, Monty White, everyone.