Today we’d like to introduce you to Mickey Lyles.
Hi Mickey, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was born in Rock Hill, SC in the 1970’s. My parents were from Sumter, SC and returned there shortly after my birth. I grew up in the “country” on a dirt road in Sumter. I started my first business at 23, with more grit than clarity and a lot to learn the hard way. Since then, I’ve built, scaled, and sold multiple companies across the service and retail industries, led teams of varying sizes, and spent years in the trenches alongside business owners as a Business Consultant.
In 2009 my father passed away, unexpectedly, of a heart attack. That event changed my life forever. The idea I had that “no one’s coming” started then but didn’t take effect until 2013 when I found myself broke and broken. My dad had died, my wife and I divorced, I was in more debt than most would believe, and I was on a road to know where. Then I took a guy’s road trip and made a phone call that changed everything. A real turning point. I re-married my wife in 2014 and we have built a beautiful life together. She has her own successful career, so I say respectfully that “I have built” but with her support. I have built multiple seven figure businesses, I have launched a non-profit, I’ve coached many other entrepreneurs, I’m a public speaker, I have my first book coming out this year, and life is grand and full of surprises.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned from growing up on dirt road. There is also a lot of action that must be taken when your dad dies at 58 years old and you realize no one is coming to save you, no one is coming to pay your bills, there is no inheritance, no one is going to create success for you. I adopted some “Dirt Road Solutions” in aligning my life and growing my businesses. As my career progressed, I noticed a consistent pattern: most struggling businesses weren’t short on effort, they were short on knowledge and structure. Decisions and ideas lived in people’s heads, numbers weren’t being used as tools, and growth felt reactive instead of intentional.
That realization led to Immeasura Growth Partners. Today, we help business owners slow down, gain clarity, and build companies designed to last. I’ve worked with leaders who’ve achieved significant growth, in some cases over 300% but what matters most to me is helping owners build businesses that create freedom, accomplish their goals, provide a dignified life for themselves and their families.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not even close. The road has been anything but smooth.
One of the biggest struggles early on was learning that hard work alone doesn’t fix broken structure. I fell into the same trap I see many owners fall into today doing more, carrying more, and thinking that effort would eventually create clarity. It doesn’t. It just creates exhaustion.
I’ve also learned some tough lessons about leadership. Growing a business means growing people, and I had to learn the hard way to let go, trust others, and build systems that did not rely on me being involved in every decision. There were seasons where growth looked good on paper, but personally it felt heavy.
Those challenges forced me to slow down and rethink how I was building. They shaped my “Dirt Road Solutions” and “R.A.M.P.E.D” programs. Growth without structure is fragile, and that success isn’t just about scale it’s about sustainability. The struggles were not detours. They were the training ground for the work I do today.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Immeasura Growth Partners, LLC?
Today, my work centers on helping small and mid-sized business owners bring clarity to complexity. At Immeasura Growth Partners, we specialize in turning growth that feels chaotic into growth that’s intentional using practical systems (Dirt Road Solutions), clear metrics, and leadership structure that owners can actually maintain.
I’m best known for helping leaders see what’s really driving (or limiting) their business. We focus on the numbers first, not just revenue, but margin, capacity, and decision-making and then build simple operating systems around them. No hype. No one-size-fits-all playbooks. Just structure that fits the business and the owner behind it.
What I’m most proud of isn’t a single revenue number or exit. It’s watching owners regain control, making confident decisions, building stronger teams, and finally having space to think again. Seeing a business stop consuming someone’s life and start supporting it never gets old.
What sets my work apart is that it’s built from real experience. I’ve been the owner, the operator, the salesperson, the janitor, and the leader carrying weight. I don’t teach theory; I help people build businesses that endure and lives they actually get to enjoy. One other cool thing is that when owners learn how to impact their businesses in this way, it also naturally impacts their personal finances which in turn creates quality of life.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I grew up in a house with 3 half and stepbrothers. We were a wild bunch on that dirt road. We played in the woods all day long, if we weren’t in school. Momma would have to drag us in on Saturday’s, we loved the outdoors. We rode bikes, built forts in the woods, played hide-n-seek, etc. All the things the kids from this generation miss with the electronics.
I changed schools in the sixth grade and that proved to be hard on me. I started out at a small Christian Academy and moved to public school. I didn’t know anyone and I became shy. Then in the seventh grade I got cut from trying out for the basketball team and that made me more reserved and shyer. However, in the eighth grade I was introduced to golf. Golf is an individual sport. I didn’t have to worry about letting a team down, it was all about me. (at least at first) I could put in the practice alone and my hard work at practice started paying off. I got pretty good at golf and that gave me confidence. I made the high school golf team and then I started breaking out of my shell. Hard to hide when you have to make a 3-foot par putt to win the match with 100 people watching. Also, funny how a young man becomes less shy when it’s time to talk to girls. 😊
I’d classify my upbringing as middle class. My mom and stepdad both worked hard but we had 4 children in the home so there were times when things were tight. We had the essentials but not all the name brands and extras. I was also 9 years older than one of my half brothers and 11 years older than the other. I still felt isolated at times but I spent most of my teenage years running the streets with friends. I was very involved in our youth group at church. The pastor’s son was my best friend. We got in our fair share of trouble but most of it was harmless.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://immeasura.com
- Instagram: @mickeylylesimmeasura
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MickeyLylesImmeasura
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mickey-lyles/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MickeyLylesImmeasura
- Other: https://mickeylyles.com
