By Cliff Johnson

Jan. 16, 2009 is a milestone date for Mike Lindell of Carver. That’s the day he quit all his addictions.

He’s been sober in the 13 months since, pouring his new focus and clarity into his growing Carver company – MyPillow, Inc.

MyPillow is one of the city’s largest businesses. It employs about 20 workers at his manufacturing plant and another 20 employees on the road, marketing MyPillow at fairs and trade shows throughout the U.S. The company also markets its products through 22 distributors in Canada, the West Coast and other parts of the U.S.

To date, the company has sold more than 140,000 pillows.

Lindell admits he doesn’t even remember some of his early years, because of a steady diet of alcohol and drugs that cloud his memory.

Early career pursuits include a carpet-cleaning business, operating a lunch wagon and owning five bars in Carver County.

Sobriety and his patented pillow now occupy his time and attention.

He invented his first pillow after an auto accident left him with a severe neck injury.

“Because of the injury, I often couldn’t get to sleep, and I wasn’t able to stay asleep,” Lindell said.

“I couldn’t find a pillow that really worked so I decided to make my own.“I got out the sewing machine, bought some down and shredded some poly foam with my fingers. Once I got the right amount of down for comfort and the right sized poly foam for support, I found I was sleeping better.

“Then my wife and kids kept swiping my pillow! Every time I was ready to lie down, I would have to search for my pillow. I was constantly asking, ‘Where is my pillow? Where is my pillow?’

"Finally my 9-year-old daughter said, ‘Hey Dad, why don’t you make a pillow for each of us, so we can all have my pillow?’“I thought, ‘Aha … She’s absolutely right!’ So, I made one for everyone in my family. Then, neighbors, families and friends started to find out about MyPillow and we grew it into a business.”

Lindell’s initial marketing approach was a rented kiosk in Eden Prairie Center. The space cost thousands of dollars to rent and resulted in meager sales of 80 pillows. Fortunately, one of those 80 pillows was purchased by a man who operated a Twin Cities home and garden show.

“The fellow called me two months after he bought the pillow and introduced himself. He asked, ‘Are you the guy who makes MyPillow?’ When I said I was, he said it was the best pillow he’s ever slept on and he invited me to be part of his show. That was the turning point – our sales at that first show were huge.”

Following the home and garden show, Lindell began exhibiting at the Minnesota State Fair, renting a 28-foot space in the grandstand, the largest space available in the building. He said the state fair is one of the best sales venues the company uses.

Vikings receiver

In January the company got a publicity boost when CJ, the StarTribune’s gossip columnist, reported on a mixup at Minnesota Vikings headquarters. Lindell had dropped off three MyPillow samples for Vikings receiver Percy Harvin, who suffers from migraine headaches. Lindell said his pillow has relieved migraine headaches for many of his customers.

Mike and Charlie Lindell feed medical poly foam into a foam-reducing machine.CJ reported in her column that the pillows never got delivered to Harvin despite the Viking receptionist’s promise to Lindell that they’d be delivered to Harvin.

Lindell still doesn’t know whether Harvin ever got the pillows, but he said the column resulted in more than 150 pillow orders from new customers.

Recently, Lindell started a new company, MyChiroPillow, to serve the medical field. He said he worked closely with Northwestern College of Chiropractic in Bloomington to develop the medical product line and the pillows were recently approved for distribution by a leading medical-supply firm.

Lindell said the secret to MyPillow is “a patented protuberant adjustable support system, which keeps the cervical nerves straight and supported through the night.”MyPillow comes in five different sizes to fit various-size people and different sleeping patterns and conditions.

“If customers purchase the wrong size pillow – and that is typically the only reason we have returns – we will ship a new one with a postage-paid return label so customers can put the old one in the box and ship it back to us, no questions asked,” he said.

MyPillow is the only U.S. patented pillow made 100 percent in the U.S., according to Lindell. The company also claims that MyPillow helps relieve snoring and sleep apnea, fibromyalgia and migraines, neck and back problems, acid reflux, allergies and asthma, restless-leg syndrome, anxiety and insomnia.

Testimonials

The company’s Web site loaded with customer testimonials about how MyPillow solved sleep problems.

Here is an example, quoting Lindell: “I was in Omaha, doing a show, and these veterans who came back from Iraq told me of a new sleep disorder where they can’t get to sleep for five to six hours because of their extreme stress and insomnia. There were about 18 of them that came to our show. I gave them a discount on all of their pillows, provided they would report back if the pillow helped them at all. They called me and said two out of the 18 got to sleep within two hours. The other 16 fell asleep within 45 minutes and slept through the night!

“They could not believe that MyPillow could make this much of a difference and asked me if this was a magic pillow. I said, ‘In theory, because you can adjust the pillow to support your cervical nerves and keep them in place all night, it made the rest of your body so comfortable that it was like a sleeping pill. And, by keeping those cervical nerves calm and cool, even with the highest stress and anxieties in the world, you were able to not only get to sleep fast, but get quality REM sleep all night.’”

Lindell is grateful for his sobriety and is committed to helping others addicted to drugs and alcohol to accept treatment for their addictions.

He contributes 10 percent of proceeds from MyPillow to Sober Corps, a Twin Cities-based non-profit community “dedicated to helping people achieve their first year of freedom from chemical addiction through life skills mentorship, training and networking.”

Later in 2010, Lindell hopes to publish his life story – a book entitled “Against the Wind.”“The only way to explain my life is to believe in miracles,” he said. “If people don’t believe in God after reading the book, they won’t really have read the book, which will tell the story of my life as an addict and my life in recovery. It’s really a story of miracles.”