Life Changing!

(Must first wish my wife a Happy B-Day!!!)

My last post talked about the journey that led me to working for myself as a designer, however there is more I want to share that goes beyond just events and moments. It seems that each of us has so much more than we will ever know we are truly capable until in a moment it is as if the curtain is lifted and a much deeper understanding that worth is revealed. I don't want to come across as if I know all the answers to life or that I know it all, however if by sharing my newly discovered inner self and peace then maybe you can start your journey to unlock a door shut by pain and sorrow to a better tomorrow.

I am about to share some personal things that maybe are unknown to most, but it is important to share this to those willing to read. I have suffered from anxiety for many years, after the death of my mother I took on depression and major weight gain and much heartache of a alcoholic father trying to cope with the loss of his wife. Luckily I had a great friend and support that later become my dear sweet wife, and she has had to bare much of the sorrow, anxiety and anger right along with me.

Moving forward to just the past few months, I met very key and critical people that I have been blessed to know and meet. If I would of never left my jobs and decided to pursue my dreams I would have never met them. Most of my life I was bullied, put down and ignored by peers. From my parents that worried and "what if" my whole life - it seemed to me that all my best efforts were in vain. Going back to the core of it all are these certain mentors that changed my life in the course of only a few months. I will name only there first names; Ron, Jay, and Bobby J. - these man that only knew me for a moment in my daring escape from the grind of the corporate world - has shown me things that is really hard to explain in words. Ron is a mentor for the SCORE.ORG that helps small business and it is all free, He told me something that I will never forget and when he said it, I knew that it relates to the gospel and relates to us all - "Every Set back is a Set UP! I knew that everything that I deemed a failure was actually a success, that every trial that I faced was not in vain and had a grand design. I could now walk forward learning from my mistakes in a much more powerful way. Jay taught me many things, but it is the way he as a mentor believes in me and my vision, and adds input and lets me know that I am of great value to my clients. Bobby J. has amazing challenges that is similar to my challenges and has become a great business success story and shares my visions to help me know what I need to do to get to were I want to go, plus he just gets you fired up all the time about dreams and what can be.

I met these man while attending a networking meeting, called ELP and we get together each week to work on our business and not in our business. Linda has been to these meetings and you just cant help feeling like you can do anything - plus they give you the tools and resources to build our own success.
I was honored to receive an award from that group and was recognized for my accomplishments of my small growth in revenue. I realize that I did the effort and put forth the vigor, however they along with my wife were the wind beneath my wings (cliche I know)

"EVER SETBACK IS A SET UP!" - Think about it and you will see what I mean. So what if you lost a job, what ever your dealing with realize that it happened whether forced or not, but now is the time to see what the set up is to your greatness. Linda was miserable at her job, she came home in tears, most every day from people yelling at her over there problems, and already suffers from much scar and pain already - this job was not good for her well being. We prayed about it, and decided to let her make the decision to leave. I knew it was going to be tough and much more pressure on me to provide until she found something better, however it has opened a door for her to explore working with elderly people and using her own talents and her passions. I would say that even know she left her job, she found something better to make her happy.

The pursuit of happiness is in us all, we must dare to dream, dare to take flight and then do it. If we think about the what if's and the maybes we only clip our wings and never get to see the what could of been and the unlimited possibility's that lay before us. I also want to thank Doc Nielsen for helping me in therapy get over my anxiety's and my fears. He as blessed my life with a listening ear and understanding.

10pm today> I actually just got off the phone with Ron and he and Jay are going to be starting a new business and wanted me to be a Board-member (voluntary) for my insight and knowledge that will help them grow and in turn help my ideas and meet new clients, along with design work needed. Again every time I feel that things are going bad, just be patient and along comes the set up and then on to victory. Take faith, be believing in all things...

Truly Blessed! - "long story but a goody"

I hope that you found your way to this post through Facebook and that you might have thought, I wonder what the heck is going on with the Pilkington's....?  If not that is o.k. too.

Not even sure when the last time I wrote on this blog but wanted to touch base with you and of course myself as this poses as a makeshift journal. It has been a wild ride over the past 6 months or longer. Back in the day our lives were so much different. Feeling a sort of freedom from not taking care of Al after his passing gave us some time to re-learn how to be a couple again. We do very much miss "Pa" and his laughter and stories. Linda was working for Wells Fargo and I was struggling to find a job in my field and playing with a dream of owning my own shirt business. Reality was I had to go back to the phones and get yelled at each and every day by customers not happy with whatever service I was working for. Xerox hired me in January and I was there taking calls for Verizon Wireless and Linda in the mix moved from Wells Fargo to a weird project for Teleperformance with Cricket Wireless.

One day at work and just out of training and on the floor taking live calls, waiting to hear back from a job interview 2 weeks out for a great Graphic Design job that I landed 2 interviews for, I suddenly froze and a great since of reality hit me. THIS IS MY LIFE? Doomed to this life and tied to this phone and to companies that spit us out like used tissues... I spoke with my supervisor and was in tears and felt so scared for my future. This is not where I am suppose to be and being yelled at is not going to help matters from the customers. I left and took the day off to re-group and to re-focus myself - but did not quit. I came the next day, the next week even - but yet again I sat at my cubicle with fear and an overwhelming feeling that I should not be here...? My mind or spirit wanted me to go home and apply for another call center? In Orem? I sat and sat and wrestled with that...and then never clocking or looking back left Xerox. I got Hired at Vivint with the hopes of a better call center experience that would help me later find a job in my field, I just did not want mean customers and mean staff support.

Well - Vivint was like going from the fire to a much hotter fire. It was a lot worse then Xerox and in the process Linda left her job got hired as well plus we commuted each day to Orem from Salt Lake. Why was I given this inspiration to leave a job and then to find myself in a worse situation?? It was truly inspired because it was the last straw I would ever take working for the call centers. In a strange twist of events, Linda and I left Vivint with no jobs in hand and not a clue of our next move...

This puts us on a timeline of around the end of May and 1st of June. I decided that I would prove to myself of my self worth and my ability's in graphic designs. I decided to start my own business!!! With that said, I froze again and the fear overwhelmed me yet again.. what have I done? We need to pay bills and rent and and so much more.. What are we going to do. I decided to go forward and work as hard as I could with little business experience at at all. Linda would find a job again at a call center but would not start until July 24th at Century link. So it was down to the wire in all accounts.

Through the help of the Bishop, Selling our Jeep, and some inheritance money and some gracious help from Linda's Family we were able to maintain our self in this transition period.

Truly blessed... has been on my mind just over that past few days. In sure ah and amazement I find myself on a vista of the journey and what has transpired in just 6 or so months. I have met the right people at the right time. I have impressed the right people at the right time. My fruits of my labor is being shown in so many amazing ways. Through one single thought to change my status from a worker to a boss and to make my own dreams come true I have been blessed to meet great and amazing leaders, mentors, and humble millionaires that have more heart then I ever thought they had. My perspective has changed, and realize that in some cases they have become successful because they do have a good heart and want to help out others along the way. I found a networking group that is free and its whole purpose is to help start-ups and small business. Since I am a graphic designer most small business need design work and I have landed some small jobs and some large jobs and has made it possible to provide some paychecks along the way. I expressed my willingness to do some free work to those that wanted it and out of that I was met with Ron Baron who I actually knew when I was doing my shirt idea. I was asked to meet with him to be a mentor to me and to help out with one of his projects for a lady who owns a daycare and is a refuge and provides daycare for refuge mothers. He was so amazed by my work that he is one of my biggest clients and supporters.

Through a simple act of helping out I have now landed larger clients, and long lasting accounts that can provide for my family. There is so much I would love to share and the amazing people I get to work with and the over whelming creative force and talent I meet with. I also forgot to share with you that my first month on my own I met with a gentlemen and he became a client for motorcycle underwear and we were able to pay rent as he paid in advance for the work I was commissioned to do.

This past week I landed a great account that is helping people enjoy their music and be safe and my designs will be on the actual package for retail this winter!!! Then I am starting another side project /company that will be involved with K-12 schools with graphic tees and it is called Advocate tees that will help promote self esteem and education on ANTI-BULLYING; through the mentors and connections I have it is moving forward rapidly!!! Look for more information on this in 2014.  Again truly blessed and I owe it to the Lord, my wife and for listening to the holy ghost and taking a risk. Linda now works for CenturyLink downtown and we are working with a specialist in fertility to work on a family as well.

Thanks to all those that have supported us and look forward to seeing how all this unfolds. I am actually going to be on a board of directors for this networking group in Sandy and will have more opportunities to network. Have a great day and I am thankful for anyone that read this and was inspired to think outside of your box and take risk sometimes.

A long over due vacation

It has been a long and stressful stretch these past few months, actually a year or more to be exact. As far back as I can recall, this past summer with my jobs and graphic design search has come up empty. Going back to the phones has been a hard pill to swallow as well. In fact I have been bouncing from job to job just to keep us a float so to speak. I have trained for Humana, spent some time taking the political surveys for the election, and working for a Health group and even have tried my hand being my own boss selling and designing graphic tshirts. This New year of 2013 and looking back in the rear view mirror so to speak hoping that the new year would bring better things to come. Linda lost her job at Wells Fargo and put us in a emergency state with me not working... I did what all of us have done one time or another, going back again doing something that you despise for the better good; going back on the phones yet again. The company was better known as phone hell, they hire anybody breathing and have some computer skills. In the midst of training I got ill and nearly lost this job several times and with bronchitis again missing much needed hours was lucky enough to keep the job and move out of training and unto the production floor. In the meantime Linda started working for my old nemesis, phone job and has been taking calls for direct dealers for Cricket Wireless in a round about way...it is a bit complicated and leave it at that. Going to these jobs are stressful as we are treated more like a number rather then a person. In all this I still kept my head up high and felt that as I peruse interview after interview for graphic design that the number game of odds would pan out...my luck has run out. After a very devastating blow of not getting a graphic design job I thought I for sure nailed in my second interview of a panel of 10 designers, it finally hit me that maybe phone jobs will be the career path I must take from now on. I signed up for health insurance for this employer and assumed that in a month or so I would be covered as we need insurance desperately. To my frustration and anger the website I enrolled in was so lame that I came to find out that I will not have insurance and would not be able to have insurance  until late fall; out of this anger I decided that I need to just except the fact that I need to be on the phones for now until I revamp my portfolio and hit it hard in a few months and find a job that would give me the insurance we need sooner then this fall.

So... with my anger still in hand, I decided to apply for this company in Orem and so I did and the next day I was hired and realized that it is a commute and that Linda does not like her current job and so I got her an interview and she was hired the next day. This is now the current situation as we face the fact that our jobs are 45 minutes away and in another city, we are in the midst of the next steps of this and start training for a security system call center and insurance will kick in early summer.

I am hopeful I made and we mad the right choice in this endeavor  as of this moment we are now on vacation as it is long over due, we are in Bryce Utah at Bryce national park. Here is a shot from my cell phone and car window.

Long over due! Snow Dump!!

Well, most you that even read this will be please to know that there is another post. For those that don't, will never know anyways.  It has been a long time since I posted anything. I guess I left out Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years if memory serves me right. So to get you up to speed this is the low down. Turkey day was awesome and frustrating at the same time. We love spending time with our Logan family and the food was delicious as always. The frustrating part was Linda was very sick and tired. She ran that morning in a 5k Walk for a charity at Thanksgiving point. It was so cold too! I stayed warm in the car as Linda and Bella our dog made the 5k run/walk. Linda bless her heart was really sick and walked most of the time. Bella was just happy to be outside! Then at the end of the Month I took my shirt to my first ever EXPO!! I sold a whopping 4 shirts!! I want to personally thank Steve for his service and generosity in helping me on this project!! I have learned tons since then about the business in general. At the current moment, I am selling about 4 a week...for the past 3 weeks. So slowly and surely the name will get out there and maybe just maybe we will see it blossom.

December was a harsh month, we lost Alan from his element of his kidney's shutting down. It was a blessing for him to be reunited with his loved ones on the other side! With the loss of Al, we sojourned on into the holidays the best we could. We loved all the parties we attended and the presents we received.

Onto January and the bitter cold and the major snow dump that we are still deep in. Luckily the inversion and storms have cleared and the sun is shinning once again, along with the temps!! Nala our cat and Bella our dog have managed to see eye to eye and get along for the most part, but it is a funny thing to watch as the dog wants to play fetch with the unwilling cat.

I have started a new job at a call center for Xerox on the Verizon wireless project for customer service - and as I do this I am sending out resumes to graphic design jobs to get me off those phones as soon as possible. Linda is awaiting some info from her Wells Fargo job on the over all status, and is currently working on other assignments at this time.

Well, we hope to have a better 2013 and see some long time goals come to play. We want to get a house late summer and work on getting the adoption thing going when we know were we are going to land. We wish al those that read this have a great day and a prosperous year!