Leslie Montgomery — Bestselling ghostwriter, author, speaker, storyteller, and host of Faith Over 40—an unfiltered deep dive into the remarkable stories and unseen dimensions of some of the most influential voices, experts, and thinkers in the faith arena. This is where we shine a spotlight on a demographic too often overlooked: those over forty, whose wisdom, grit, and faith uniquely position them to shape two generations at once—raising up the ones who come after them while honoring and caring for the ones who came before. They stand at the intersection of legacy and influence, holding the power to change the future while safeguarding the past.
If you’ve ever met Leslie Montgomery, you know she’s a woman who believes stories can change the world—because they’ve changed hers.
For more than 25 years, Leslie has been the secret pen behind Fortune 500 CEOs, political and faith leaders, bestselling authors, and influential voices you’ve seen on TV or read in major publications. Whether she’s crafting a high-stakes speech or endorsement, writing a op-ed or memoir that will outlive its author, helping someone find the words they’ve been searching for all their life, or penning her own books, Leslie’s gift is simple: she makes the message unforgettable.
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Her own story is one of grit, grace, and God’s faithfulness. A childhood trauma survivor, she’s walked through valleys most people never speak of—and emerged with a passion to give others hope and value. That passion has taken her across the country and around the world as a speaker, including the Billy Graham/Chuck Colson national tour, national women’s conferences, and events tackling leadership, mental health, faith, and women’s rights.
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Leslie’s work has been featured in FOX News, USA Today, Christianity Today, Charisma, Reader’s Digest, The Western Journal, and more. She’s the author of several books, including The Faith of Mike Pence and The Faith of Condoleezza Rice, and has ghostwritten countless others for names you’d instantly recognize—but will never hear from her lips.
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Along the way, she’s been honored with the SME Award, Women Mentoring Women, presented by journalist Lisa Ling, recognizing her tireless commitment to empowering other women leaders.
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Now based in Boise, Idaho, Leslie brings her love for authentic, “drop the mic” conversation as host of the Faith Over 40 podcast—a space for candid, faith-filled talks about life’s biggest needs, challenges and most beautiful victories in the lives of those in mid-life and beyond. With warmth, wisdom, and a lot of humor, she draws out the kind of conversations that feel like coffee with a trusted friend… the friend who will laugh with you, dry your tears, listen, ask the hard questions, and remind you of your ultimate purpose on this side of eternity: to know God, to be known by Him, and to make Him known—all in one. But Leslie also believes that being known by God is not just spiritual -it is physical, emotional, and mental as well. Too many people spend their lives seeking God on only one level, when He desires to meet us wholly and completely, in every part of who we are.
From Simple &
Difficult Beginnings
1967
BORN
California
She entered the world under a shadow no child should inherit. Her mother was seventeen and had left school after tenth grade; her father was nineteen. Their marriage was not born of love but of coercion. After he assaulted her at gunpoint, authorities presented him with an ultimatum—marry her or face statutory-rape charges. Having already served time, he chose marriage. Leslie was born into that fraught household, with a brother about eighteen months her senior.
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1970
She moved to Idaho, where her paternal grandparents lived—a move that would prove deeply damaging, as her grandfather would go on to sexually abuse her during visits for the next several years.
1979
Leslie’s father was a violent alcoholic, following in his own father’s footsteps in dark and perverse ways. Even worse, he serves on the local police force. From an early age, she pushed back against his rage, driven by an unshakable need to protect both her mother and herself. That resistance only seemed to fuel his anger and hatred toward her.
At twelve, after a particularly brutal fight, Leslie ran away—desperate for safety and freedom. But when her mother refused to tell the police the truth about what was happening at home, she was forced to return, trapped once again in the cycle she had tried to escape.
1983
Three months after her sixteenth birthday, Leslie became a wife—still bewildered as to why her parents had signed her over to a man in his twenties they had only just met. Following in her mother’s footsteps, she quit high school, and before she could catch her breath, she was pregnant—the first of three pregnancies in as many years.
What she didn’t know then was that she was already carrying the deep, hidden scars of Complex PTSD from her childhood. Once she left home, those wounds broke open like a flood. Nightmares from her past stalked her sleep, dragging her back into moments she wanted desperately to forget. Flashbacks hijacked her days without warning. Severe anxiety attacks gripped her body until she could barely breathe. Hypervigilance kept her mind on constant alert, scanning for threats that weren’t there but always felt real.
Desperate to quiet the storm inside her, she began drinking—not for pleasure, but to numb the pain she couldn’t turn off and to blunt the edges of panic. Alcohol dulled the terror for a while. Men became another escape, a temporary distraction from the gnawing loneliness and the memories she couldn’t outrun. But the relief never lasted. Instead, the cycle pulled her deeper into despair.
For the next few years, she lived in a fog of depression, hovering dangerously close to the edge after several attempts to end her life. The little girl who once ran to escape the violence was now a young woman running from herself—searching for anything to silence the echoes of her past. The biggest issue? She had kids in tow she was subjecting to her pain.
1990
The fall of 1989 was one of the hardest seasons of Leslie’s life, closing the chapter on a brutal year. She had left her husband and children in another state to return to Idaho, hoping to secure a place for them to live. But before she could bring them home, her husband filed for divorce and refused to let her see the kids. The devastation was crushing.
In her grief and despair, Leslie attempted to take her own life—and nearly succeeded. When she woke up, she was handcuffed to a hospital bed. In the months leading up to that moment, she had also broken the law and now faced jail time. She served two and a half months behind bars, where, in an unexpected twist, God began to plant the seeds of hope.
While in jail, Leslie’s mother introduced her to retired Army Colonel Art Montgomery, a man known for mentoring West Point cadets. He offered to mentor her through this difficult season. Art quickly recognized something in her—intelligence, a spark of hope, a quick wit, a resilience forged in hardship. He believed she had been dealt a bad hand in life and that with the right foundation, she could rise above it.
Against the advice of those around him, Art took Leslie under his wing after her release from jail and began mentoring her. He became the father she had never known, but always wanted, teaching her life skills she had never learned, paying for her education, and speaking into her life with encouragement and belief. He didn’t just see the mistakes she had made; he saw the woman she could become if she had support and applied herself.
Art saw her writing not as a pastime, but as a gift meant to be shared with the world. And he invested in it—financially, personally, and with steadfast support. Through his mentorship, Leslie experienced for the first time the kind of grace, guidance, and unconditional love that changes the trajectory of a life.
1993
Leslie moved to Nashville with a dual passion—studying psychology and writing country music—and found success in both. But on November 2, 1993, she discovered a deeper fulfillment that far surpassed any stage or spotlight: salvation in Jesus Christ. That day, someone spoke a prophetic word over her—that God would restore the years the locust had eaten from her life and bless her beyond anything she could imagine, if she would lay down her music career and step fully into ministry.
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She obeyed.
At the time, Leslie was estranged from her children due to her ex-husband, but within a year, God restored those relationships. Soon after, she began writing for ministries under the umbrella of Focus on the Family, Prison Fellowship, and other prominent organizations, all while counseling inmates at the Tennessee Prison for Women and Corrections Corporation of America. Later, she was asked to serve as Chaplain at Corrections Corporation of America, leading their corporate facility.
From there, her writing career flourished, and it seemed that everything she put her hand to carried God’s unmistakable blessing.
2005
For years, Leslie poured her heart into writing for ministries, while also serving as the behind-the-scenes voice for a prominent Doctor of Education and Marriage and Family Therapist—penning his books and shaping his messages for television, radio, magazines, and books across the nation. Those years became the foundation for her own calling as an author.
Eventually, she published the first of many books under her own name, quickly becoming known for her ability to capture faith-based biographies with depth, authenticity, and heart.
Her gift for telling powerful stories soon attracted Fortune 500 CEOs, political leaders, and influential faith voices, who trusted her to give life to their books, speeches, op-eds, policy statements, fundraising appeals, stakeholder letters, and public messages. Along the way, she traveled the world, speaking and teaching, pouring her own hard-earned wisdom into others.
One of the highlights of her speaking career came when she was invited to join the Billy Graham/Chuck Colson tour across America. Leslie has preached and taught the Word of God before crowds from coast to coast, and around the world, sharing her story of redemption—a testimony of God’s grace and restoration that continues to move and inspire all who hear it from stadiums of teens, women's conferences, churches, leadership forums, mental health and domestic violence rallies and fundraisers, pro-life events, and more.
2025
When Leslie surrendered her life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior on November 2, 1993, she was given another prophetic word—one anchored in Genesis 50:20:
“What the enemy meant for evil, God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”
That verse became a banner over her life.
Known for her raw honesty and unguarded vulnerability, Leslie has a way of opening her heart so completely that it invites others to do the same. “Honesty breeds honesty, and vulnerability breeds vulnerability,” she often says. Her deepest longing is for others to experience the same healing, wholeness, joy, and peace she has found in Christ.
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During her time as a featured speaker on the Billy Graham/Chuck Colson tour, National Tour Coordinator Dallas Anderson described her this way:
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“Leslie speaks with a rare boldness—filleting herself on stage, exposing her darkest chapters so that others can step into the light. She gives the Holy Spirit room to move and gives the audience permission to come forward and do the same. Because of her transparency and anointing, we witnessed salvations that words alone could never have drawn. Leslie is living proof that God restores what the locusts have eaten. She doesn’t just believe in redemption—she embodies it. And when she speaks, heaven touches earth.”
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As she says the goal is of the Faith Over 40 podcast, her mission is simple:
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“To know God, to be known by Him, and to make Him known.”
