success stories
From Border
to Boardroom
winning their first clients at seminars held right at border
checkpoints. Two decades later, they’ve built a multi-office firm.
Mike Byers and Mark Groom left steady paychecks in 2005, winning their first clients at seminars held right at border checkpoints. Two decades later, they’ve built a multi-office firm.
In 2008, Mike Byers and Mark Groom sat in Nogales, Arizona, watching border security employees file in for a seminar.
“We looked at each other and thought, ‘Is this really the right direction for us?’” Mike recalls. It meant constant travel and federal-benefit bureaucracy.
They pushed on and doubled down.
Long-time friends and advisors, Mike and Mark had left well-paying jobs in 2005 to build their own firm. They needed a like-minded IMO, and Gradient Financial Group, founded by entrepreneurs Tami and Chuck Lucius, fit the bill perfectly.
Headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, the firm began by serving federal border employees, winning clients with the unlikely strategy of holding seminars right at the checkpoints.
"With Chuck and Tami and Gradient, we knew that whatever our vision, they'd figure out a way to make it happen for us."
Mike with Gradient co-founder Tami Lucius at the Meraki signing event, fall 2025.
Mike and his family at the Gradient Gala in Utah, 2021.
They formed their own RIA with Gradient’s RIA Registrar. Gradient Investments came on as a third-party money manager, and Case Central built reports on what clients cared about most: Social Security, retirement income, asset allocation, and taxes. As they scaled, Gradient’s Tactical Coaching team helped build the blueprint for growth.
Today they’ve acquired multiple offices, with more to come and their vision now reaches past the day-to-day to their legacy: community, grandchildren, and the causes they care about.
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