Brian Wysong, co-founder and CEO of Tumbleweed TexStyles, has a passion for giving back to his local community in Frisco. He is dedicated to helping others because of the opportunities he was given to become the successful small business leader he is today.

The Tumbleweed TexStyles team captures the unique culture of Texas in their hand-drawn designs, which they put on T-shirts, hats and drinkware.

Wysong met Jeb Matulich while teaching high school in Frisco. They founded Tumbleweed TexStyles together in 2011. Since founding the business, Wysong and Matulich have received recognition for the success of their company.

Wysong has been recognized as a 40 Under 40 Honoree in the Dallas Business Journal, Frisco’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2022 and included in a list of 100 influential people in Texas to watch in 2023.

Receiving the award for Entrepreneur of the Year along with Matulich was especially meaningful to him.

“We were humbled and honored to be recognized,” Wysong said. “We feel like we’re one of the catalysts to the growth and development of downtown Frisco and so to be recognized by the chamber and our fellow businesses, it really meant a lot.”

The backstory

Prior to Tumbleweed TexStyles, Brian worked as a marketing coordinator and account executive for a branding and marketing agency in Dallas. He said he worked very closely with the CEO and got to see the behind-the-scenes of running a business and leading a team.

After that, he taught business, leadership and entrepreneurship at Liberty High School in Frisco for 10 years.

“I’ve been a student of entrepreneurship and marketing for a long time,” Wysong said. “It’s just been an honor to be able to take what I learned from school, my business experience and teaching and apply it to our own business.”

While teaching at Liberty High School, he met Matulich and the two founded Tumbleweed TexStyles in 2011.

Company leadership

As the CEO, Wysong leads the Tumbleweed TexStyles team and ensures all of the members of the team are working toward the same goal. Wysong said he values clear communication and expecting results.

“I share my vision, create expectations, communicate my wishes clearly and then let people do their jobs and monitor along the way,” he said.

He also said he avoids micromanagement. He said he trusts his employees to do the jobs they were hired to do.

“If you want people to take risks, you also have to create a culture where it’s okay to take a risk and you have to be okay with failure,” Wysong said.

Another important aspect of leadership to Wysong is sharing his vision for the company with the team.

“Good management is knowing where you’re going and then being able to help teach and train your team, step by step to get to where your vision is,” he said.

Community involvement

Because Wysong previously worked as a high school teacher, and Matulich still teaches art, they chose to donate a portion of every sale at Tumbleweed TexStyles to the Frisco Education Foundation. This organization helps provide scholarships for high school seniors, according to the company website. He also served as a mentor for the Independent Study and Mentorship class at Frisco ISD.

In addition, Tumbleweed TexStyles has helped donate to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Frisco FastPacs and many other local organizations.

He also serves on the board of the Frisco Chamber of Commerce to “advocate to have the best business community we can,” he said.

Wysong helps with branding and sits on the board for Melody of Hope, a nonprofit that provides musicians and bands to play at other nonprofit events.

He also serves on the Advisory Committee with the Music Friendly Texas Program, under Visit Frisco and in addition serves on the National Breast Cancer Foundation's Advisory Council.

“I try to be present at events in our community that have a service purpose and utilize my influence and expertise to help others,” Wysong said.

Public speaking

Another way Wysong engages with the community is through public speaking. In his previous role as the marketing director and college pastor at a large church in Lubbock, he had the opportunity to speak each week and organize large events.

Wysong has recently started speaking at events to share his business knowledge with the Frisco community.

“I love speaking,” he said. “I speak at local high schools, colleges and other small businesses. It’s an opportunity to tell our story and try to motivate or educate others.”

He said he wished he had had someone like himself helping him when he was just starting out in his career.

“If I would have had someone in the business world educate me early, I can’t imagine where I’d be now,” he said. “It just helps this younger generation get further ahead. Hopefully they won’t make the same mistakes I did.”

To contact Brian Wysong about a speaking event, or to learn more about Tumbleweed TexStyles, visit their website tumbleweedtexstyles.com/.

The above story was produced by Mary Katherine Shapiro, a member of Community Impact's Storytelling team, with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team. Our integrity promise to our readers is to clearly identify all CI Storytelling posts so they are separate from the content decided upon, researched and written by our journalism department.