Meet Mark Montgomery: Skill Toy Designer & Store Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mark Montgomery and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mark, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
I think locking on to the notion of custom tailored infrastructure was the single most important decision. In practice, constantly refining the balance of all business/brand parts in a way that matches my lifestyle, my finances, my schedule, my interest and just plane ‘me’. It’s easy to talk yourself out of a good opportunity based on considering a method of execution that you’d never optimally choose. Taking the time to think through your ideal method of execution for a goal, business or project, seeds the right type of thought processing towards a much more ‘you’ set of options, considerations, and opportunities.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’ve seen a good handful of conversations questioning how to categorize yo-yoing, but for the sake of this conversation, we’ll classify it as a performance art. Most of my friends and community supporters would likely call attention to my style and my flow in particular. I’ve always been very much into music, so when two electronic artist (Daedelus and Deantoni Parks) informed me that they standardly fully improvise their concert sets, this came across as a slap in the face lol and a solid challenge that I thought I could enjoy. For the last 3 years, with serious accompaniment of music as the key directoral effector and enabler, I’ve been doing fully improvised yo-yo play ie #fullyfreestyle; it has certainly become a manifesto of sorts and is certainly what I am most proud of. When I first started, I was ‘rather’ awful lol, but I’m very glad I pushed through because the in-play recovery and musicality flow implementation I now can do, is all together fully gratifying and humbling to say the least. I would say I got to where I am professionally by trying a large variety of crafts and ‘things’ that peaked my interest. Over time, as my interest whittled down in some ways and expanded in other ways, the constant gumbo of interest eventually became my scratch pad for my lifestyle at large. Once you get hooked on your interest to the point that they became lifestyle, the professional part naturally comes over time. There were ‘certainly’ challenges along the way across a variety of mediums and interest, but specific to deciding to transition from yo-yo hobbyist/competitor to store owner, this was and still is a seriously challenging task. Juggling that transition in tandem with a fulltime job and non-profit has been one of the hardest challenges of my adult life in all aspects of challenge itself. I’ve been broken down and rebuilt more times then I can count as I go through the process of learning how best to run a hobby as a business with a brand. The only way to overcome is to keep it real…keep it ‘real’ honest with yourself and push your pride as far to the side as you can. Try to get comfy being uncomfy because there’s a lot to learn, a lot to do, a lot to keep doing, and a lot to get acclimated to as it pertains to turning a serious hobby into a business. Big lesson learned would certainly be the value of both will power AND faith as a combination, and what the weight load of juggling both sensibilities truly ‘is’ like vs what you might think or assume based off past experience. The lesson is you just don’t know what you don’t know. Your will power has limits, but you need to make sure your faith is limitless as standard. Without faith in what you believe in and in yourself, the journey will lengthy. As far as what I want the world to know about me and my brand story: I try my best to take a practical approach at maximizing my life experience and life experiences. My brand is a reflection of what I love and enjoy most, basted in my life’s cumulative efforts, remixed into a variety of dishes intended for anyone and everyone.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Pre-Covid 1 or 2 of the nights would be met with dancing at either The Sound Table or MJQ. These two venues are Atlanta staples that housed an abundance of talented DJs, performers, and dancers. Food and beverage wise on the weekdays, coffee would be a must. If in a rush, ‘Markmontjoe’ would be brewed by me at home via Aeropress brew method, or if time permitted, coffee at Brash Coffee Roasters in West Midtown. For a nice medium size hot sandwhich for lunch, the pick would be Savvy Provisions. For a nice dinner with a solid bar, certainly Bocado. One of the best burgers in town with a great pseudo upscale but comfy vibe and nice bar. For a hefty dish let’s say like a Saturday afternoon, Greater Good BBQ. Sunday dinner would be Mango’s Carribean for Jamaican Food. Another weekday lunch worth adding in would be Tuk Tuk Thai. People wise, I would bring any friends visiting to me and my friends freestyle rap event 100 Off The Top by Soul Food Cypher. Our non-profit SFC has been hosting a monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) freestyle rap event that’s open to the community for free for the past 9 years. It garners a really diverse crowd of lyricist and just all around good people of all ages and background.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to give a shoutout to my mom and grandma. My mom provided an abundance of opportunities for me to try and/or consider. She constantly threw up ideas for extra art programs, assorted workshops, auditions, sports, you name it. In certain matters of seemingly low odd outcome expectancies, she was always willing to put forth an effort, follow through, and try regardless. My grandmother was somebody you could count on to always answer the phone, and just all-in-all ‘be there’ no matter what. She maintained a very admirable consistency in her ethic to maintaining her house and her life in general.

Website: www.markmont.shop

Instagram: instagram.com/markmont

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/markmont

Facebook: www.facebook.com/markmontdot

Youtube: youtube.com/markio00

Image Credits
Portrait of me is by: JTrav All other photos: Markmont. (The casing and dot are very important please – much thanks)