Archives for October 2011

What is your true calling? How do you find it?

October 13, 2011 by Sonia Marsh

Many of us go through life without ever questioning:

What was I put on Earth to do?
What things tap into my strongest strengths and my deepest loves?
What things let me be the most “me” I can be?
What is my true calling?

Some people find their true calling at a young age, and others never really seem to. Why is that?

Here are three questions to help you find your true calling. I found them in the November 2011 issue of the Oprah magazine. Try to answer as truthfully as possible the following:

How does what you’re doing make you feel? (Does it feel right to you? Does it stimulate you?)
Does it have a positive impact on others? (Does your energy and enthusiasm connect with others when shared?)
Does it turn up the volume and increase the vibration of your life? (Whenever you pursue what you’re meant to be you have a certain vitality, and when others see this, they’ll be inspired too.)

If you’re not sure how to discover your passion, here’s another helpful exercise you may want to try. 4-Step Guide to Discovering Who You’re Meant to be.

Brainstorm
Take stock of your strengths
Tap your motivation
Go

Kristine Flanigan and Ethan Bartlett, two young fashion designers from FIDM- (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising) found their calling at a young age. I interviewed them last Friday at a Fashion Show (see video of Kristine below) at the Irvine Spectrum, sponsored by StyleWeek OC and the Cadillac Contemporary Design.

Nick Verreos, was the host and former Project Runway contestant, and he also found his passion for fashion design at the young age of five. More photos of the show and the designers’ outfits made from Cadillac car parts.

Click here to see the fashion designers and their outfits of the 2011 Cadillac Contemporary Design contest.

I have several passions, writing, networking, traveling, weight lifting, “talking”, learning.

As far as my true calling, I’m not 100% sure yet. I can feel I’m getting there, and somehow I’m drawn to teaching and working with people in less developed parts of the world.

What about you? Have you discovered your true calling in life? Please share your thoughts.

My blog was hacked. Why me?

October 10, 2011 by Sonia Marsh

My website was hacked last Friday and I felt sick to my stomach. It felt like an intruder entered my home, stole my belongings and left me naked and vulnerable.

How could this happen to me? I’m not a corporation or a business selling products; no I’m Sonia Marsh, author and blogger who enjoys a community of people from around the world.

So here’s what happened. (I am not a professional website designer or coder who can offer technical advice.)

I logged onto my hosted WordPress website and noticed that the photograph on the most recent post on the landing page had disappeared. A black dot had replaced the photo. The photo was still on the post, so why wasn’t it being “pulled” onto the home page? (My website designer and coder had written code to do this automatically.) I experimented uploading another photo hoping this might be the solution. After deleting photos from my Gallery, and uploading them directly into my post, nothing worked. Within an hour or so, all photos on my home page were replaced by small black dots. I felt like my blog was slowly crumbling in front of my eyes just like the frightening photos of the Twin Towers on 9/11.

I checked all three of my domain names and my website never popped up. The directory no longer had an index file. I no longer existed on the web. As I mourned the death of my website with hundreds of posts, photos and comments gone forever, my immediate reaction was the most common one: panic, which can also be the most dangerous one. Douglas Karr explains in his article “WordPress Hacked? Ten Steps to Repair Your Blog,”

“Stay Calm! Don’t start deleting things and installing all kinds of crap that promises to clean your installation up. You don’t know who wrote it and whether or not it’s simply adding more malicious crap to your blog. Take a deep breath, lookup this blog post, and slowly and deliberately go down the checklist.”

Call your web-hosting company, if you use one, and ask them to look into it.

Act fast. Get immediate professional help if you don’t know how to fix yourself.

I went from panic, to mad to Gutsy, and said, “That damn HACKER is not going to get away with this. I’m not giving up after all these years of blogging, I have to get it back.”

I e-mailed my web-designer who got back to me right away and said, “Sonia, you’ve been hacked. Call your web-hosting company immediately and find out what’s going on.”

She is not a coder but put me in touch with a fantastic guy who informed me the problem lies with a script called: timthumb.php. That script had a ‘hole’ in it that would let people take over WordPress sites.

From there it infected almost every other file in WordPress, the plugins and the theme.

In order to reduce your risk here are a 5 steps to take if you use WordPress:

Keep your themes and plugins updated – #1 cause of malware infections and hacks independent of any platform!
Only download from reputable sources (WordPress.org).
Only use plugins and themes that are being actively developed and have good, trusted reviews. Do your homework
Keep an eye on WordPress security news to see if there are any issues with the plugins or themes you are using.
Don’t just disable, remove any software that you’re not actively using. Just because it’s not active doesn’t mean it’s not vulnerable

I lost two pounds on Friday from nerves and not eating and had an event to attend in the evening. Fortunately, when I returned, Loren, the tech guy, left me this message.

“I pretty sure I’ve got it clean

I had to completely re-install WordPress
Delete all plugins
Re-install all plugins
clean every theme file.”

I clicked on my website: soniamarsh.com and I was back online. I celebrated with a glass of wine, and deleted a couple of plugins I don’t use. I hope this never happens to you, or to me again.

Don’t forget to change your passwords frequently.

Have you been hacked before? How did you react?

Above Photo Daniel Conway

From Frugal to Regal thanks to Buick

October 6, 2011 by Sonia Marsh

My cell phone rings, “We’re here to deliver your car,” the guy from Page One Automotive says. I have no idea what to expect, and run down the hallway to open my garage door. There, parked on the street, sits a gorgeous silver 2011 Buick Regal Turbo Sedan. A little intimidated, I stop half way down my driveway. The delivery guy hands me the remote, requests my signature on his paperwork, and within seconds he’s gone. Now it’s just me and my luxury car for the next four days.

Buick Regal Turbo charged — Buick Regal CXL Turbo charged

It takes me a while to pluck up the courage to check her out. First I have to get my heart rate back to normal and make sure my hair and make-up look just as polished as Regal, before I take her for a spin. Her flowing lines and sculpted body deserve to be seen, so what better place to take her than the upscale Newport Beach Library, where I’m editing my travel memoir.

As I roll my computer case through the garage, my Kia Rio looks concerned. “Don’t worry, you’re still mine,” I say.

Regal is outside, waiting for me, and as I click on the remote to open her trunk, I realize, “OMG, I lost the key.” I back track through my garage, eyes focused on the cement floor but I can’t find it. I ask my 23-year-old son to help me look for it. He inspects the remote and all of a sudden, this metal prong ejects. “There’s the key,” he says. Now I feel dumb.

Buick Regal retractable key — The silver button releases the metal prong key

I head back to Regal, open the doors and slide into the soft leather seat. I already feel pampered, wondering if this seat will start pulsing and kneading my back like the one at the nail salon. I insert the key and the engine purrs ever so smoothly.

Everything is elegant inside, from the leather steering wheel to the ebony trim with its piano-black accents. But like any woman, I need music to get in the mood, so I play with the sound system first.

I’ve never been inside a car with a seven speaker sound system, and once I discover XM Radio, I’m hooked. I find my favorite dance hits on “The Groove,” and start wiggling to the beat, reminiscing over my night club days in Paris where I’d dance to Donna Summer and other disco hits. Now I’m relaxed in my elegant interior when I hear a tapping on the window. It’s my neighbor from across the street.

“Got a new car?” he asks.

“GM offered me a car to drive to Speed Fest this weekend,” I reply.

“Looks great,” Jim says.

“I love it, but I can’t figure out where the hand break is.”

“Let me take a look.”

I get out and Jim gets in.

“See the red light with the P?” I say “Well, does that mean the brake is on?”

Jim fumbles around with various buttons, then pulls out the manual from the glove box and thumbs through to the correct page. He reads the instructions.

I’ve never heard of an electric park brake before, and once Jim figures out how to release it, I take off and start jammin’ to Ray Parker Jr. & Raydio playing, “For those who like to Groove.”

As my foot pushes down on the accelerator, I feel the turbo kick in, giving me the boost I need to pass a slow Lexus before the on-ramp to the 405 freeway. I’m in my own cocoon, happy and enjoying a luxury I’m not used to. What a difference from six years ago when my family lived a simple life on the island of Ambergris Caye. We would take our kids to school by boat.

My husband can’t wait to drive Regal to Speed Fest.

“Here’s the address,” I say, handing him the paper.

“Why don’t you enter it in the navigation system,” he says.

“I’m not sure how it works.”

It’s not as easy to figure out as I thought so I pull out my tablet for navigation. Too much technology to keep up with, and we’re running late.

The ride to Coronado is smooth, turbo-powered and luxurious. I head over to the Chevy booth where they are celebrating 100 years of Chevy + 100 years of Naval Aviation, and thank Dave Barthmuss and Sara Leeper for offering me four days of luxury driving.

Sara Leeper and Sonia at Chevy Speed Fest booth — Sara and Sonia at Chevy Speed Fest booth

Not long ago, I contributed to a blog post on GM’s the future is electric blog and was offered a nice car to drive, plus 8 tickets to attend Speed Fest in San Diego. Since my youngest son, 17, enlisted, I have been involved with Cell phones for Soldiers which Chevy is also helping raise funds for. Please contact me if you have a use cell phone you wish to get rid of.

Photos of Buick Regal above

Do you enjoy driving? What features are important to you in a car?

Project Runway: Nick Verreos hosts Style Week OC

October 3, 2011 by Sonia Marsh

Imagine my excitement when Suzanne Broughton, and Marcy Massura, founders of OC BlogCrush asked me to participate at Style Week Orange County and blog about the event.

Photo of the selected OC BlogCrush team of bloggers, (I’m top row, second from the right, Marcy is next to me with reddish/brown hair, and Suzanne Broughton is next to Marcy Massura.)

Suzanne Broughton and Marcy Massura started OCBlogCrush in 2009 and here they are with the host Nick Verreos

Suzanne, Nick, Marcy

This was my first event and all of us enjoyed a fabulous fashion show with the latest fall fashions and beautiful models with Nick Verreos, former contestant from Project Runway as our host.

Here’s a video of Nick demonstrating the catwalk to one brave guy who tried it out.

In going with the theme of my blog, I could not resist asking Nick,

“What are the “top 3″ most Gutsy things he’s ever done?”

Below are Nick’s responses, which he took the time to write over the weekend.

1) First on my “Top 3” Most Gutsy things I’ve ever done: After years of studying and getting my Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science/International Relations, from UCLA and even after taking the Foreign Service Exam to go into the State Department’s Foreign Service–I decided to secretly apply to all the top Fashion Colleges and see if I would get accepted (based only on my sketching ability) and they ALL accepted–and that’s when my life took a new turn and I decided “No Should’ve Would’ve Could’ve” and went on to follow my real dream of studying fashion and becoming a Fashion Designer.

Sonia and Nick Verreos — Sonia flattered when Nick Verreos tells her, "You have a model's figure."

(I told Nick that famous photographer Alissa Everett, whom I hope to interview when she returns from her trip abroad, also turned her passion for photography into her job.)

2) Second on my list of Gutsy Things–was after 10+ years of working for many, many fashion companies and many, many designers–as an Assistant Designer, Pattern Maker, Designer–you name it, I did it–I decided to start my own label NIKOLAKI--along with my partner David Paul, in 2001. Giving up a stable job to start my own company and all the MADNESS and stress that comes along with that–was definitely Gutsy. It could have failed but here we are ten years layer!

(I told Nick about Chris Guillebeau whom I met at Book Soup in LA, wrote the book, The Art of Non-Conformity, which appeals to all those who are looking to quit their 9-5 “cubicle” job and follow their passion.)

3) Doing Project Runway back in 2005. This followed on my “No Should’ve Would’ve Could’ve” mantra—I already had a successful NIKOLAKI line, had been teaching at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising for several years and so why would I want to do Project Runway? Why not? I wanted to reach a wider market and have my gowns and dresses be seen by a larger demographic. And also I just wanted to shut my friends up, who kept insisting “You should TOTALLY do this!”. I never expected to be on the show. I just wanted to say “Look, I did it, I went to the casting…I tried…” Well, the rest is, I guess, “history”. But also a lesson in Being Gutsy!

Love your mantra Nick, “No Should’ve Would’ve Could’ve”

I’ll add a Fourth for good measure: Buying a House!! All on my own, with my own money–without “mommy and daddy’s help” thank you very much! That was probably one of the GUTSIEST things I’ve ever done! I cannot remember the last time I had such stomach aches and headaches. I think during that time, I lived permanently on Mylanta, Pepto Bismol and Imodium AD! ( I know, sorry, T.M.I.). I would definitely put it as one of the Top Most Gutsiest Things I’ve done in my life so far.

“Congratulations Nick. Look forward to when my own three sons can afford their own houses.“

I apologize for the lack of “I Bungee Jumped from the tallest building in the World!” or “I dived off the rocks in Acapulco”, or “I traveled through Afghanistan and Nepal without my Gucci Loafers”–I’m sure compared to other people’s “Most Gutsiest” things, mine are oh-so boring…but they were Gutsy to me 🙂

Best–

Nick Verreos

The models were gorgeous and with our own VIP lounge,

Blog Crush bulleting board — Our own VIP lounge for bloggers

and the gracious hosting of StyleWeek OC, with generous gift cards (yes, I was lucky to win one), tons of goodies, a wonderful meal served in a shoe box from NordStrom’s Cafe Bistro.