Michael Montgomery.
I’ve spent most of my adult life around people who know how to perform.
Founders. Leaders. Professionals. People who carry responsibility, make decisions, and deliver results. People who know how to push.
For a long time, I was one of them.
Like many high performers, I learned early how to win by effort. By discipline. By pressure. I learned how to keep moving forward, even when the internal cost wasn’t obvious yet.
And for a while, that approach worked.
But over time, I began to notice something. Not just in myself, but in the people around me.
Success didn’t remove internal friction. In many cases, it amplified it.
People were still performing well externally, but internally they felt strained, restless, or misaligned. Decision-making felt heavier. Motivation less clean. The edge that once felt natural started to feel forced.
Nothing was “wrong.”
But something wasn’t clicking anymore.
Why "Between Mountains"?
The name refers to the specific terrain of someone looking better to understand success and achievement through a new lens.
David Brooks coined the term, which is fully described in his book The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life.
Although there’s no affiliation to the book, the name is a nod to this life-changing concept.
The First Mountain is the climb for external success: Revenue, Status, Reputation. This is about accumulation. The first mountain is about achievement. Proving yourself. Building credibility. Creating momentum.
The Second Mountain is the climb for deeper significance: Success-Redefined, Depth, and Vocation. This is about contribution and redefining success on our new terms.
The "Between" is the valley in the middle. It is the transition point where the old tools (fear, hustle, adrenaline) stop working, but the new tools (clarity, identity, purpose) haven't yet been built.
This transition is dangerous. It is where burnout, stagnation, and "quiet collapse" happen. We exist to guide you through this terrain—to help you descend from the First Mountain without crashing, and ascend the Second Mountain with a new kind of fuel.
We don’t see this as a departure from ambition. In fact, it ignites it, but with a shift in how we define success and achievement.
What we believe
You’re enough as you are.
Whether you're just starting, outwardly successful, or completely lost, you're enough just as you are. You can be more, but you don’t need to feel like you’re not enough already.
You can be more.
Something isn’t clicking. Maybe it used to or never has. Either way, there’s room for growth. It’s scary. The path is unclear, but you can move forward with a renewed sense of direction