Meet Tyler Steigelman

Hi Tyler, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My name is Tyler Steigelman, I am 25 years old and I am here to spread positivity, love and my brand: WorthWhile Brand. This is my story in a nutshell. My path on this journey started in 2014 for me. At the time I had just graduated high school and was questioning what I wanted to do with my life. It is a weird feeling when a huge percentage of your class and people around you are all going off to college, trade schools, military, starting careers, etc. As it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, I am grateful that my parents never pushed the college route into my life. They always said ‘do whatever you want but just do it to the best of your ability.’ At this time I was working at my first job, Kroger, and worked there 3 1/2 years. I started when I was 16 and by the time I left at 19 I had progressed from a bagger to front end supervisor. Because that was all I knew, I decided to sign up for college to get my associates in business so that I could become a store manager by the time I was 21. I figured why not? I’m good at Kroger, why not keep it going?

During my time at Columbia State Community College, I was over at a close friends house one weekend and he mentioned that I should read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. My granddad had been telling me to read this book for a while at this point, but for whatever reason I just never did (which I later realized is an example of the power of choice we all possess). Everyday we have the opportunity to make choices that will either build our future or destroy it. I had the opportunity to read this book for years, but I CHOSE not to. It took another person telling me I should read it for me to finally make the CHOICE to read it. Reading that book single handedly changed my life. It opened my mind to new perspectives I had never thought about before. Specifically the idea of the ‘rat race’ . At that point, I realized no matter how far I progress in the Kroger corporation there is always going to be the CEO over me. I wanted to own something, I wanted to grow something as I worked. This made me realize I had to leave Kroger and break the cycle I was in for the past 3 years. I decided to leave at the beginning of 2015. I was fired up, I didn’t know what I was going to do yet, but I was so excited to start what was next. To keep money coming in I worked a couple days a week cleaning houses with my parents while still attending college. Over the summer my best friends and I were on a trip to Holiday World and during this trip, me being fired up and wanting more, naturally we were conversing over ideas and possibilities of what to do. Over the next week, one of my best friends Benji Collins, who was on that trip, came up with a name and logo. We used to be over at each other’s houses all the time, so the next time I was over he showed me and in the month of July 2015, WorthWhile Brand came to life. We believed that everyone is WorthWhile despite what they have experienced, good or bad. That is what we wanted the brand to represent, self-worth. For me, that raised the question of: what makes us as WorthWhile as individuals? This is a question I was determined to find the answer to and 7 years later I am still answering it and sharing my internal discoveries with people I come in contact with in my everyday life. I started reading more books to gain more insight and expand my mind. Over the years I’ve read many self-help, mindset, and spiritual books, but two books I give a lot of credit to during this time frame are, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie & The Brand Within by Daymond John. With WorthWhile starting to grow I was hungry to talk to people and spread the message. What better way to meet and talk to new people than being a server? I got a job serving at Olive Garden in Spring Hill. I chose serving because it was the opposite of what I had been doing at Kroger. My job at Kroger, people would approach me when they needed something (check out, questions, product assistance, complaints, etc.). I knew serving would be the opposite, I would be the one approaching people. I applied myself and quickly mastered the skill of serving & communication after I realized that serving provided me the opportunity to create an experience for someone. There will probably be people reading this that will think “Hey I remember that guy, he took great care of me.” I took pride in what I did. I always kept WorthWhile cards on me and spread the message of the brand everytime an opportunity presented itself. People would often ask “so what are you going to school for” or “serving can’t be the only thing you do, what do you do outside of here?” That would open the door for me to give them a WorthWhile card and explain the meaning of the brand “It’s called WorthWhile Brand and the meaning and message behind it is that I want everyone that no matter who you are or what situation you are in, to never forget you are WorthWhile and to always be yourself”. During my time at Olive Garden & attending Columbia State, I was still reading and exploring branding outside of school. I ended up deciding to withdraw from school after one day when I was reading a social media marketing book on my own (outside of school), and the next day I went to class and was taught what I had just taught myself the previous day. This is when I realized I was on the right track and I could gain the necessary knowledge needed on my own outside of school if I applied myself. This led to my decision to withdraw from C-state and focus on working more and spreading the brand. So for the next 6 1/2 years I worked and spread the message of the brand grassroots style, shaking hands and networking. After almost 3 years at Olive Garden I got a job serving at Southern Tre Steakhouse on the square in town. It was the new hot spot in town and I was there for the start and growth of it. I eventually got into bartending which allowed me to meet people and grow WorthWhile in a whole new way. I was able to connect and build relationships with so many people. Serving/bartending  was a win-win for me. Everytime I went to work, I was able to network, make a great living, and spread an impactful message. Outside of working in the restaurant industry I was always finding ways to grow WorthWhile. I learned how to screen print so I could produce my own clothing, seeked out public speaking engagements to challenge myself, frequently set up pop-up shops at local events, and was always looking for the next thing on my journey. After leaving Columbia state, ironically enough, through networking, I got the opportunity to speak at their 2016 Leadership Summit about WorthWhile. Following that I spoke at a couple smaller engagements at C-state, such as, a small math academy and a suicide awareness convention. At this point, I realized that speaking to people was the number one way to spread the message of the brand. After actively pursuing speaking engagements, I found myself speaking at The Boys and Girls Club of Maury County, and later being invited to speak at E.A Cox Middle School for their anti-bullying campaign in 2018. Growing up being somewhat shy, and it was mind blowing for me to be standing in the gym speaking at the school I once attended. You could have never told me I would be standing in front of any entire school talking about a brand that was once an idea. Whenever I speak about WorthWhile I make it a point to talk about self-love/worth, capitalizing on ideas, positivity, and leadership. You never know who you can inspire. Our words are powerful. We also did an interactive project with The Tennesee Children’s home of Spring Hill. All of the kids were given the task of drawing something that was WorthWhile to them. Afterwards, they collectively voted on one of the drawings that I then made into a screen for printing. We were able to spend the day with them and provide the experience of getting to print their own shirts. During the printing, we were also able to talk to them about the importance of self-worth and spread some positive energy.

For me, it has always been about spreading the message and making an impact on people, rather than trying to sell something. My goal is for people to understand their worth and rarity as individuals, which in turn will allow us to come together as a whole, as human beings.

After 7 years of growing the brand and building a support foundation, I decided it was time to leave my job at Southern Tre and go all in on the brand. My last month was October of 2021. Since then I have continued to spread the message of self-worth and love. I have purposely grown the brand strictly by word of mouth and shaking hands, but I am currently in the process of shifting my focus to have a bigger online presence. It’s the only way to scale in this day and age.

With my focus shifting towards having a bigger online presence, I needed to define what I truly wanted WorthWhile to stand for.

Currently in our society we face a rising stigma of self-doubt, anxiety, and depression. I want WorthWhile Brand to be a leading influence in helping combat these mindsets and help people create a life of positivity and optimism.

Our mission is to aid in the rising stigma by serving as a positive reminder of your self-worth. We want to help people connect with their truest self & live out a life of love. We believe the first steps to creating this way of life can be achieved through things like mindfulness, self-reflection, and meditation.

That’s why we create clothing intended to provoke positive self-reflection. We’re here to help boost self-esteem, mindset, and day to day life.

We are currently working on our next line: The Mirror Effect. All mirror effect apparel is printed/embroidered with a positive message in reverse so that when you see your reflection WorthWhile Brand will be right there with you with a boost of encouragement.

We are also introducing The WorthWhile Spotlight!! The WorthWhile Spotlight is a video podcast series created to shine light on people and their journey through life. While the mission of the brand is to promote positivity and self-worth, we believe that everyone is on a journey and that journey is WorthWhile. We are all rare and unique as individuals but share the commonality of being human beings. There is always something that can be learned from someone else. Our stories are written by the things we experience growing up. These experiences, negative & positive, shape who we are and what we stand for as we grow. The beautiful thing about your story is that YOU decide how it’s told and The WorthWhile Spotlight is the place to tell it.

The first WorthWhile Spotlight episodes are currently being recorded and we will be launching soon!

Going forward we will be implementing information, guidance, and resources on our website to help guide anyone interested in learning more about the steps into  self-reflection, being mindful, and meditation.

We want to be a home for people who are curious on transforming their mindset and becoming the best version of themselves possible. WorthWhile Brand is a movement that stands for you as an individual and for humanity as a whole. We all go through points in our life when we are down and don’t feel worth it. WorthWhile is here to remind you that you are.