With Rosh Hashanah right around the corner… My mind is filled with thoughts of reflection, repentance and the idea of starting new.

For those not familiar with the Jewish faith, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year.  By tradition, Rosh Hashanah is a time to reflect on past sins and misdeeds.  It is a time to repent and ask forgiveness, forgive others and ultimately as with any new year, it is a time to begin again with a fresh and clean slate.

Last year I realized the person I needed to ask forgiveness of “was me!”  I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think we are our own worst enemies — I know I am.

So I’m beginning early… I’m on a mission to take my life back, relearn how to focus and concentrate on the things “I want for me!”

COMMENTS

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the subject.  Please type them in the Comments Box below. I look forward to sharing with you. Let’s create a “community of encouragement and inspiration!”

Say Thank You

Let’s make it a point to “Thank at least one person a day!”

THANK “YOU” for taking the time to read this.  I hope you will click on one of the buttons below the post to share it with others!

LET’s CONNECT

Follow Me on Twitter
http://www.RozOnTwitter.com

Be My Friend on Facebook
http://www.RozOnFacebook.com

Connect With Me On LinkedIn
http://www.RozOnLinkedIn.com

Luv & Hugs,

Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com

In my opinion…  I think this one is very important because while we may be entrepreneurs, we are customers too.

I believe in EXCELLENT Customer Service and I provide it too.  Perhaps that’s the reason why I go out of my way to provide what I call #1 Customer Service because I feel so many companies no longer care.  It feels like… Once they get your money they could care less.  I know you know what I mean on this one!

Expecting Someone to Say Thank You

This has been a sore spot with me for years.  My friend Loretta says I expect too much.  She says while people should, they no longer feel the need to say thank you or they just don’t even consider it a necessity!  I think that’s nuts.  However, while I might not agree…  her way of thinking is better than mine as it avoids being hurt, angry or worse yet feeling like a door mat!

I go out of the way to quickly respond to the rare questions my members ask and the questions of site visitors.  Loretta says I also answer too quickly as well.  She says no one expects an immediate response in today’s world.  Well that may be true, I just can’t help myself. I feel if they have a question I need to do my best to respond quickly!  But it offends me when I respond and then do not get a thank you ~especially when I go the extra mile. To me, it feels like because our business is represented by a website and  not a live person, they do not see us as people — people just like them.

• What do you think? 
  • Do you think people should say Thank You?
  • Do you expect them to say Thank You?
  • Do you get offended when people do not Thank You? 

I mean, FOR REAL, am I the only one who feels it important to say Thank You?

I really would love to hear your thoughts on this one.  Is Loretta right… that I expect too much?

COMMENTS

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the subject.  Please type them in the Comments Box below. I look forward to sharing with you. Let’s create a “community of encouragement and inspiration!”

Say Thank You

Let’s make it a point to “Thank at least one person a day!”

THANK “YOU” for taking the time to read this.  I hope you will click on one of the buttons below the post to share it with others!

LET’s CONNECT

Follow Me on Twitter
http://www.RozOnTwitter.com

Be My Friend on Facebook
http://www.RozOnFacebook.com

Connect With Me On LinkedIn
http://www.RozOnLinkedIn.com

Luv & Hugs,

Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com

Things just fell into place for me to write this Blog post today, so I’m supposing it is the right thing to do!  I even found an appropriate quotation by randomly opening my gratitude book– go figure!

“Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.
Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.
Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.
One day I shall dig my nails into the earth,
or bury my face in the pillow,
or stretch myself taut,
or raise my hands to the sky and want,
more than all the world, your return.”
— Mary Jean Iron

If you’ve been following along… besides the normal daily drama, I’ve been going through lots of technical issues — and losing lots and lots of sleep and patience.  Like everything else, one thing gets solved, another takes its place.  The object is to roll with the punches and keep balanced, but  how does one do that? 

For me it is to take a deep breath, walk away and get back to basics.  What is basic for me may not be basic for you, everyone is different.  For me basics means different things at different times.  I’m feeling spiritually balanced at this moment, so for me back to basics today was to have lunch and plop myself down in front of the TV to catch up with my favorite soaps.

WELL there is more… 

I decided to do some decluttering and plow through a bunch of junk mail and papers I no longer needed.  That would have been mindless, but my shredder broke and until one goes on sale, I’m doing it the old fashioned way!

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO…  I sat for one hour “manually” furiously ripping and tearing everything into shreds – being what I like to call “destructively productive.”

You know what?  By the time I got done I was feeling calmer and more than a little contented knowing I actually did something I’d been meaning to do — declutter and file — while destressing in the process! You gotta love it!

Had my spirit been bruised…  I’d have picked an appropriate spiritual CD set and took myself for a walk. OR, grabbed my camera and just walked until I found something to photograph!  Today, I just felt like being alone with me!

What Do You Do to Get Back On Track?

What do you do when you are feeling frustrated and need some de-stressing?

COMMENTS

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the subject.  Please type them in the Comments Box below. I look forward to sharing with you. Let’s create a “community of encouragement and inspiration!”

Say Thank You

Let’s make it a point to “Thank at least one person a day!”

THANK “YOU” for taking the time to read this.  I hope you will click on one of the buttons below the post to share it with others!

LET’s CONNECT

Follow Me on Twitter
http://www.RozOnTwitter.com

Be My Friend on Facebook
http://www.RozOnFacebook.com

Connect With Me On LinkedIn
http://www.RozOnLinkedIn.com

Luv & Hugs,

Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com

Last week started out to be a strange week and it ended the same way, but…  all’s well that ends well!  Everything works out for good in the end!  I have one question though:  ”When does this episode end?”

Here is my latest challenge.

When I use hyphens, quotes, etc. in my blog post titles they are replaced with crazy coding like ASCII Text.

This happened with WordPress 2.9.2 and now with WordPress 3.0.1. So it is NOT version specific.  It is also NOT theme specific.

After much investigation I did find one of my blogs that works correctly and it was suggested by Lisa Sabin-Wilson – Author of WordPress For Dummies 3.0 (@LisaSabinWilson on Twitter); and Cathy Perkins aka The WordPress Wizard (@WordPressWizard on Twitter) – two WordPress Gurus that this is/can be a database issue.

I’ve written my host and sent him the video below to demonstrate my issue and ask for his help and input!

As they say:  A picture speaks a thousand words, that’s why I’m including it here in case anyone else is or will be experiencing this issue in the future.

VIEWING NOTE:  In this case, since it is my computer screen… You might want to watch the video on YouTube where you can see it more clearly.  BELOW is the direct link to the YouTube.com version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_hilJqQR64

COMMENTS

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the subject.  Please type them in the Comments Box below. I look forward to sharing with you. Let’s create a “community of encouragement and inspiration!”

Say Thank You

Let’s make it a point to “Thank at least one person a day!”

THANK “YOU” for taking the time to read this.  I hope you will click on one of the buttons below the post to share it with others!

LET’s CONNECT

Follow Me on Twitter
http://www.RozOnTwitter.com

Be My Friend on Facebook
http://www.RozOnFacebook.com

Connect With Me On LinkedIn
http://www.RozOnLinkedIn.com

Luv & Hugs,

Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com

The – in the title is NOT a hyphen. It was typed with ASCII code ALT 0150 on numerical keyboard.

This is a fun post that I hope will get some interesting comments.   What does Friday the 13th mean to you? Are you superstitious? 

I suppose — at least for me — as one gets older and more realistic one becomes less superstitious (or do they)?

Although I won’t walk under a ladder if I can help it and am not too happy when a mirror breaks, I do my best to not give into the bad luck thing. 

This is a silly one.  At one time…  If I found coins that were “tails up” I would NOT pick them up.  Yet IF I found bills, heads or tails did not matter.   TODAY… I pick it all up as long as it is money and consider it “good luck, whether heads of tails.”  After all, it was there, I found it…  “so isn’t that good luck?”  I once found a $20 bill getting off the bus.  Oddly enough earlier I had lost my own MTA (bus card) with almost $20 on it!

What does this Friday the 13th mean to me?

I’m hoping for a relaxing day.  My site was hacked earlier this week.  It’s fixed now, and I’m looking forward to some rest and relaxation — no matter what the date is. 

IN FACT… I’m looking forward to lots of good luck!  What about you? 

What are you thinking about this Friday the 13th?

COMMENTS

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the subject.  Please type them in the Comments Box below. I look forward to sharing with you. Let’s create a “community of encouragement and inspiration!”

Say Thank You

Let’s make it a point to “Thank at least one person a day!”

THANK “YOU” for taking the time to read this.  I hope you will click on one of the buttons below the post to share it with others!

LET’s CONNECT

Follow Me on Twitter
http://www.RozOnTwitter.com

Be My Friend on Facebook
http://www.RozOnFacebook.com

Connect With Me On LinkedIn
http://www.RozOnLinkedIn.com

Luv & Hugs,

Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com

How are you on commitments? Do you put yourself first?

Are  you more dedicated to keeping commitments with others than with yourself? 

There is something wrong with this picture IF you continually put others before yourself.  YOU are the MOST IMPORTANT person TO YOU! (Or you should be!)

If we do not take care of ourselves there will be very little to share with others?

If we do not keep our commitments to ourselves eventually it will take its toll on who we are. 

After 911 I experienced the darkest time of my life.  Sure we all had sadness, some more than others.  As a New Yorker and one who was caught in the Manhattan lockdown and had to walk miles to get home, I still cannot talk about 911 without getting choked up, but it was more than that.

Right before 911 I had lost a nice amount of weight.  I can’t remember now… maybe 20 or 25 pounds or so.  AFTER 911 I gained it all back.  Now I had to lose it again as everything was tight and I was not comfortable – in fact I was miserable. I did not want to buy bigger clothes.  The only problem was…

Anything I promised myself I did not follow through.  IF I went on a diet it would last a week or two, if I said I was going to exercise, that too did not last for long.

I always considered myself a survivor, someone who was strong, but…   because of my own lack of commitment to myself during this period… Eventually I felt like such a disappointment to myself that my self esteem and confidence was in the toilet.

When I did my first Tony Robbins program I turned that all around.  I began to walk at least five days a week.  I remember marking off the calendar on the fridge.  I began to watch what I ate and lost the weight (I  need to do that once again), I began to feel good about me BECAUSE this was “all about me!” You know how people say:  “IT IS ‘NOT’ ALL ABOUT YOU!”  Well that was and I was PROUD OF IT!

My point, WE “ALL” need to put “ourselves on top of our TO DO Lists!”

I am sitting here now, almost 3:00 am writing three blog posts because of a commitment I made to write 5 blog posts a week for 30 days. 

While I made the commitment to write the blog posts to Faith Barnard’s 30-Day Blogging Challenge Group on Facebook, the biggest commitment was the one I made to myself!

I had wanted to work on three blogs at the same time, but I think this one, where I can express myself and perhaps inspire and encourage others is the most important one to start with.

JOIN ME in “making YOU the MOST IMPORTANT person TO YOU!

COMMENTS

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the subject.  Please type them in the Comments Box below. I look forward to sharing with you. Let’s create a “community of encouragement and inspiration!”

Say Thank You

Let’s make it a point to “Thank at least one person a day!”

THANK “YOU” for taking the time to read this.  I hope you will click on one of the buttons below the post to share it with others!

LET’s CONNECT

Follow Me on Twitter
http://www.RozOnTwitter.com

Be My Friend on Facebook
http://www.RozOnFacebook.com

Connect With Me On LinkedIn
http://www.RozOnLinkedIn.com

Luv & Hugs,

Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com

 OMG, My Website Was Hacked!!!

I started this Blog post Tuesday evening without a care in the world, well nothing major anyway, but it seems the Internet Gods had something else in store for me.

Lo in behold in the middle of writing I received three back-to-back emails from Google.  Why on earth would Google write to little old me?  Well… Google wrote to let me know my site had been hacked and they were putting up a notice each time someone clicked on my link through their search engine to alert visitors of a possible Malware attack.  Something like “BEWARE Malware ~ DO NOT WALK, RUN AWAY!” (Google DID NOT say this exactly, but it was close!)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

AUTHOR’S NOTE:  Now that it is fixed, I can afford to be humorous. This was serious and NOT a joke.

Google was VERY kind, professional and helpful with instructions on what to do AND how to get it FIXED QUICK!

THANK YOU Google ~ IF it were not for you I would NOT know there was a problem because somehow I could NOT see it.  My site looked perfectly normal TO ME!!!  That’s yet another story as it seems all browsers and AntiVirus software is not created equal!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

IS THIS FOR REAL? Am I A Victim of a Scammer, Am I Being Spammed or Worse Yet, Is This Phishing?

My first thought was:  Is this real?  OR, was I being phished, scammed or spammed?   FOR REAL ~ My website was hacked!

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I am thrilled to report… My site has been cleaned and is  now working properly.  Google worked their magic by removing the dreaded Malware Notice in less than 12 hours.  Amazing to say the least ~THANK YOU GOOGLE!!!

WHAT’S GRATITUDE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

How does this relate to gratitude?  Who would be grateful to have their website and business hacked?  Good questions…  You asked, I’ll tell!

My website ~ Say It With eCards at http://www.SayItWithEcards.com is a Judaic eCards website.  In less than four weeks Rosh Hashanah 5771, the Jewish New Year begins.  This is a busy time for my site.  It’s a time when the site gets the most visitors in a six week period!

Imagine if my site would have gotten hacked THEN rather than NOW? OMG!

So although I was not quite sure what would happen and how this hacking stuff would all shake out, I was grateful — IF it had to happen at all — it was BETTER NOW rather than THEN.

There is a lot more to follow on my site hacking adventure, so stay tuned.  I felt a little guilty falling behind on Wednesday’s Blog post as I AM a member of the Faith Barnard’s 30-Day Blogging Challenge on Facebook and planned on having my Wednesday’s Blog Post on Tuesday night to be ahead of the game for Wednesday!  As they say… “Better late than never!”

COMMENTS

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the subject.  Please type them in the Comments Box below. I look forward to sharing with you. Let’s create a “community of encouragement and inspiration!”

Say Thank You

Let’s make it a point to “Thank at least one person a day!”

THANK “YOU” for taking the time to read this.  I hope you will click on one of the buttons below the post to share it with others!

LET’s CONNECT

Follow Me on Twitter
http://www.RozOnTwitter.com

Be My Friend on Facebook
http://www.RozOnFacebook.com

Connect With Me On LinkedIn
http://www.RozOnLinkedIn.com

Luv & Hugs,

Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com

I’m thrilled to be able to share this FANtastic event with you.

My friend Faith Barnard is running a 30-Day Blogging Challenge on Facebook. 

The idea is to encourage all of us to blog 5 days a week – minus weekends – in order to create a blogging habit and build community while sharing thoughts and contributing resources! 

Keep in mind ~ In the end, YOU can decide how many days a week you want to blog for your business, hobby, charity, community, or whatever you blog for.

CLICK LINK BELOW to find out more about
the 30-Day Blogging Challenge
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=117639724950792&ref=ts

Keep in mind ~ Until you create your own schedule for Blogging, some days are harder than others, but you can always find something to share.  Even if it is a link to one of your favorite resources.

THANK YOU FAITH

Faith is a dear for doing this.  I jumped on board because blogging is something I have on my list of To Dos.  I have three blogs I want to feed often and I’m starting off with this one where I get to speak my mind, share and hopefully make a difference by inspiring and encouraging!

COMMENTS

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the subject.  Please type them in the Comments Box below. I look forward to sharing with you. Let’s create a “community of encouragement and inspiration!”

Say Thank You

Let’s make it a point to “Thank at least one person a day!”

THANK “YOU” for taking the time to read this.  I hope you will click on one of the buttons below the post to share it with others!

LET’s CONNECT

Follow Me on Twitter
http://www.RozOnTwitter.com

Be My Friend on Facebook
http://www.RozOnFacebook.com

Connect With Me On LinkedIn
http://www.RozOnLinkedIn.com

Luv & Hugs,

Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com

This post was inspired by one I wrote years earlier…

However, through the years the theory “of Everything Counting” is as true today as it was then.

Furthermore, these two small words changed my life and motivated me to begin projects knowing I could not finish them in one sitting ~ something I’m not proud to admit ~ because I would NEVER have done it before.

Consider this:

You need to clean up a room, clean out a closet, re-arrange a bookcase or perhaps paint your entire apartment or house.  In business it might be you want to re-do your website, create a new blog, install a shopping cart, do some filing, etc.  Whatever… you’ve been putting it off because you do not have a lot of time, so you say: “I’ll attack this project when I get more time” ~ or worse yet… “someday when I have more time!”  I am smiling as I write this – Can you see me? – I hope you are smiling too, because…

If you are like me, “someday” may never happen and the job grows monumnetally in size and stress by the the time you do have the time.  Sometimes a large chunk of time, just never comes and the project never gets started and becomes a distant memory!

NOW… Consider this scenario:

You do a little today, maybe another chunk tomorrow and then more the next day or next week.  The point here is to get started!  One action — no matter how small — builds on the other and eventually the project gets done. NOTHING… “did you hear me”… NOTHING is too small, because EVERYTHING COUNTS!

This blog post was inspired by a sales training call years ago with my mentor Eric Lofholm.  Eric shared the now familiar theory that Everything Counts!”  

On a personal note: 

Years later, I can still hear Eric’s words ringing in my ears when I start a new project which I might not have started had I not considered that “everything really does count” towards achiving my goal to creating or painting if you will, the bigger picture.

COMMENTS

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on the subject.  Please type them in the Comments Box below. I look forward to sharing with you. Let’s create a “community of encouragement and inspiration!”

Say Thank You

Let’s make it a point to “Thank at least one person a day!”

THANK “YOU” for taking the time to read this.  I hope you will click on one of the buttons below the post to share it with others!

LET’s CONNECT

Follow Me on Twitter
http://www.RozOnTwitter.com

Be My Friend on Facebook
http://www.RozOnFacebook.com

Connect With Me On LinkedIn
http://www.RozOnLinkedIn.com

Luv & Hugs,

Roz Fruchtman
http://www.SayItWithEcards.com