It's true according to google, that I fit within the birth years of a millennial. Born between 1982 and sometime in the early 2000’s. It might also be true that millennials are misunderstood and have an important role to play in society. The REAL truth probably lies somewhere in the middle but for this story please refer to the title.


As many of you know I own a design business some of you may or may not know I also help Blake run a lot of the behind the scenes operations for Evolve. I have to give you a little back story so that the rest of the story makes sense. Recently Evolve has been going through a lot of big changes and we have spent a lot of time crafting a well defined brand and the delivery of a great service. I design our graphics, write our copy, basically I add the pretty stuff. As to not make this story unnecessary long I'll just tell you that because our price point is higher than other gyms we have been working on some ideas to thank our members. This leads us to CRUDE.

Never heard of them? Crude, according to their website is an all-natural skincare line that nourishes, supplements, & supports your skin's natural defensive and regenerative processes. Made by hand in SLC.

Because we are a home grown business we like to support other local business were we can. Crude interested me first and foremost because they were local, second because I had heard really good things about their product and third I liked the packaging. I'm a designer what can I say?

So I searched out a way to contact Crude. Crude does not have a phone number at least not one that I could find. They also didn't list a street address, the only means of communication with them was through email. I like email,  it has a time and a place. In fact I use it all the time but if I have the opportunity to talk with someone or better yet see them face to face I always go that route. So when I stumbled upon their address from an old City Home Collective post I decided that the best idea was to take a little field trip.

I didn't dress up fancy for the occasion. For a company that seems to pride themselves on being natural I felt like the natural nicely put together version of me would do just fine. I was super excited to talk with Crude about their products and Penn was excited for a stroller ride so it was a win win.
As we approached the store front it became clear that this was more of a box and ship product type situation but I didn't need fancy product shelves just and ear to chat about a wholesale account.

As I opened the door to the shop I was greeted by two set of annoyed and unfriendly eyes. I cheerfully brushed the negative vibes off and proceeded with my quest for a wholesale account.

Tigan: Hi, I just had a couple of questions about your products?
The Two women sitting at the table in the center of the room stared at me in silence, then."Yes?"(said with distaste)
Tigan: "Uh, ok my husband and I own a local gym (insert description of our business here) I am really interested in using your products in our thank you swag bags for our members and am wondering if you offer wholesale accounts?"
Two Women: (annoyed) "We just discontinued our wholesale accounts."
Tigan: "Oh, ok (waiting for further information like, but you can purchase our product here or we love local business or something but no other words are spoken) but you do sell product, right?"
Two Women: "Only Online"

I promise I can not make this stuff up. One of the women was the owner/founder and I don't know who the other women was.

The owner then proceeded to tell me they wouldn't be interested in working with us and while they didn't say I couldn't by their product online it was inferred.
I wanted  to  give their rudeness the benefit of the doubt as perhaps they had just thought I was looking for free samples but the second women asked about our swag bags in more detail and I explained they were not a one time thing but rather an every member who trains at Evolve gets one, an ongoing type of thing and I was willing to pay for their products.

At this point I was getting irritated. I'd dragged my busy self down their because this company seemed like a great fit for our swag bags but was to good for a phone number and in return had been utterly back handed with their hoity-toity, pretentious,  hipster rudeness.

Fine you want play that snobbish game, it was time to bring in the big guns. We may be a gym, which I admit generally conjures up ideas of lug heads, and sweaty industrial buildings or cheap, no commitment, bargain chain gyms. None of which are really bad but also none of which describe Evolve. So I pulled out the business card.


At which point the mood in the room changed slightly.
Women: "Evolve Fitness, this is really nice" (she proceeds to hand it to the owner, she glaces at it and scoffs)

Now I was mad not only because they had been so utterly rude but because our well designed business card suddenly made us seem less lame, but only a little. It seriously took all I had not to let those women have piece of my mind. I thanked them for literally nothing and left.

So here's how this breaks down. I don't normally post negative interactions with business most of the time I think the bad experiences could be due to a slew of possibilities but this experience was extra horrible and to be honest Crude seems to spend a lot of effort perfecting their online presence. They flood their instagram account with "REAL" girls in floppy hats and matte lipstick, positive skin nurturing testimonials, and a belief that natural, pure, simple and botanical ingredients can change your skin. Né YOUR LIFE.


Well Ladies you can take your euphuistic instagram account and pompous demeaning attitudes and suck it because in the real world customer service matters. The online world is great and you can make a lot of money there. But the people, the real kind on the other side of the screen. You know the human race, we are the ones buying your product and when you treat us like crap it's only fitting that we put you on blast the only way you seem to understand, ONLINE.  Why don't you filter this and see how rose colored you can make it. By the way from one millennial to the other, not that it matters, at all but we have more followers than you.

2015 was a difficult year for us. Never before have I felt like our number had been pulled and gosh was the universe out to get us. The range of emotions vast, betrayal, stress and  bazaar turn of events still leave me standing at the sidelines watching the dust settle on 2015 in utter disbelief.  I'm sure we weren't the only ones and I know for a fact that there are so many less fortunate then us who continue to live in haunted darkness. I know we are blessed. I know that the lord guided our lives in ways I don't yet understand but I'm human and hard is well, just hard, no matter your circumstances.

The bitter salt of tears pierce souls a like. Hardship is no respecter of persons it's a consequence of living.  For these truths, these laws of the universe, I'm grateful. Why you ask? Because in those quite moments when you feel as though you can't get up, That you've tried as hard as you can, that the world is out to get you, you have a choice. Sure as the saying goes you could dust yourself off and get back up again but you and I both know sometimes it's just not that easy. Isn't that the beauty of a trial? Most of us know the next step but are we willing to take it? The silence at the bottom can be deafening, but the opportunities it grants us, growth, change, power, humility, perspective, faith. That's the stuff that makes ordinary people into extraordinary people.  That's the rare beauty of a trial.

If I clear away the rubble I can once again see the privileges and blessings we were afforded This year. Though sometimes difficult to distinguish the list as I have pondered about it has grown to number in the hundreds and probability if I had a more affluent vocabulary the thousands.
In 2016 I want more, don't we all? Don't worry the selfishness of that statement isn't as bad as it sounds. Sure I'd like to make more money, it isn't all bad in fact it paid for the ingredients that created this delightful Christmas tradition experience.

I' d like it less for the material things and more for the security of my family and the ability to help them pursue their dreams. Though I'd be lying if I didn't say Chanel speaks to me and ya I do really want a pony.
In truth the statement is a little less WANT more and a whole lot BE more. The beginning of a New Year gives each of us a chance to start anew and refocus our efforts, goals, and attitudes on bettering ourselves. Shouldn't we be doing this year round? Sure but don't beat yourself up over it just make the effort and begin to change.
I read a talk recently by Elder Holland that so profoundly struck a cord with my I decided to base my Relief Society Lesson around it. I'd like to share a few of those thoughts with you.

Remember Lot's Wife:
For those of you that don't know the biblical tale the original story comes to us out of the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord basically has taken all the wickedness he can stand and he tells Lot and his family to flee as the cities are going to be destroyed. With a little less than immediate obedience and more than a little negotiation, Lot and his family leave town. Upon daybreak the morning following their escape the scriptures tell us that the lord overthrew the cities and as that Lot and his family " Look not behind thee" and what happens Lot's wife looks back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

One of the many wonderful somethings of history is to teach us the lessons of life it gives us the ability to learn from the past. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"- George Santayana

So what's the big deal. If history is so important. What did Lot's wife do that was so wrong?

"As something of a student of history, I have thought about that and offer this as a partial answer. Apparently what was wrong with Lot’s wife was that she wasn’t just looking back; in her heart she wanted to go back. It would appear that even before they were past the city limits, she was already missing what Sodom and Gomorrah had offered her.

So it isn’t just that she looked back; she looked back longingly. In short, her attachment to the past outweighed her confidence in the future."
What keeps us from progressing? Why do we struggle to move past old experiences even when we know they are holding us back from moving forward with confidence?


We need to ask ourselves the difficult questions. What do I need to change? How can I improve? What weakness needs strengthening?
"I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives."
Lot's wife doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than what she already had. "To yearn to go back to a world that cannot be lived in now; to be perennially dissatisfied with present circumstances and have only dismal views of the future; to miss the here-and-now-and-tomorrow because we are so trapped in the there-and-then-and-yesterday—these are some of the sins, if we may call them that, of Lot’s wife"
"We had absolutely no money. Zero. For a variety of reasons, neither of our families was able to help finance our education. We were both working too many hours trying to stay afloat financially, but we had no other choice"
One fall day—I think it was in the first semester after our marriage in 1963. We stopped and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. Life that day seemed so overwhelming. I turned to Pat and said something like this: “Honey, should we give up? I can get a good job and carve out a good living for us. I can do some things. I’ll be okay without a degree. Should we stop trying to tackle what right now seems so difficult to face?”
Then my beloved little bride did what she has done for 45 years since then. She grabbed me by the lapels and said, “We are not going back. We are not going home. The future holds everything for us.”
She stood there in the sunlight that day and gave me a real talk. It was a living demonstration of faith. It was “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen".