February 2009

Much of the software out there is so ridiculously expensive that it makes it nearly impossible for most people to get started with even basic computer tasks. Take for example an RN starting a part-time business as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Purchasing MS Office, antivirus software and basic graphic editing tools can easily exceed a $1,000 price tag.

I’m going to show you how you can get by on a zero dollar budget and still have access to amazingly powerful tools.

Office Suite

The most popular suite is Microsoft^® Office and not surprisingly it is also the most expensive. We have several free alternatives here. The most powerful in my opinion are the free online office tools from Google^TM known as Google Documents. Google Doc’s gives you access to word processing, spreadsheets and presentations (in essence replacing Word, Excel^® and PowerPoint^®). My next favorite office suite of applications is another freebie known as OpenOffice. It completely replaces Microsoft^® Office and will save you hundreds of dollars.

Email

Email is a big one. I hate seeing people use the email addresses their web service providers give them. Surely most don’t know better but the reason they are given those addresses is so that they cannot cancel their Internet service (or change it) without losing that email address. Anyone who has changed their phone number or email address in the past knows how big a hassle this is. So go to Gmail^TM and get an account. They usually have better spam filtering and antivirus tools than your Internet provider. You can also incorporate Google Calendar to manage your schedule.

To manage your emails, you should download Thunderbird. This will act like MS Outlook^® and let you download and manage your emails when not connected to the Internet (like when on a flight or out of a wireless network range).

AntiVirus

Norton and McAfee^® are very expensive but unfortunately, there is no way to avoid anti-virus software. Fortunately there is a free alternative known as AVGFree from a company called GriSoft. I have no problems with it and it runs just as well as Norton and McAfee^® in my opinion.

Graphic Editor

Checkout a free online piece of software called SplashUp. It is a highly stripped down version of Photoshop^® (and based on flash) but it allows for some fairly advanced photo manipulation including blending effects, layering and filters. It even ties into some of the online photo storage databases like Flickr^® and Picasa^TM. You can also find free stock images to use for your website or other marketing materials at Bad Neighborhood.

Pretty cool, right? Well…at least to the people who haven’t already shelled out $1,000 for the software they now know how to get for free.

Guest Blogger Profile

Brian Horn is an Internet marketing consultant who specializes in search engine marketing, site optimization, social media marketing, link building and web data analytics. Brian has consulted with Vickie Milazzo Institute for over three years.

Brian also speaks at seminars and conferences throughout the U.S. and Canada on how to use the Internet to improve business.

I’m still celebrating my birthday thanks to Tom. And the celebration includes lots of great wine.

Ever since my director of education stopped us from serving wine at our breaks at the 6-Day CLNC^® Certification Seminars (darn), Tom and I have looked for every opportunity to go wine tasting and usually get that chance around the New Year’s holiday.

I already told you that Tom and I are bicoastal at Christmas. After leaving my family in San Diego, we head up north to one of our favorite places in the world, the Napa Valley. This is a secret I shouldn’t tell you, but New Years is one of the best times to visit Napa – there are no tourists, no traffic, a stark beauty to the empty vines and GREAT WINE. Now, I’m sure I’ll see all of you there next year.

Driving to Napa from the Oakland airport, Tom and I had the top down on the mini-van and some great show tunes playing when my BlackBerry^® pinged with an incoming text message.

Wine Tasting Crew Tom and Vickie with Tamara and Steve

It turned out to be Tamara, one of our faculty members and a CLNC^® Mentor. She was visiting San Francisco and, remembering my secret escape, wondered if I’d be open to some wine tasting. What do you think? Did I go for it or reject it outright? I was all in! Without even asking Tom, I texted her back and we set up a time to start and I got on the phone to my favorite wine contact to set up some tasting experiences.

In wine there are two types of tastings, the first is the over-the-counter tasting available at just about every winery in their public space. You walk (or stagger) in, plop your money on the counter and toss back some grape juice and, if you like it, buy some wine and head to the next tasting. The less common tasting is the “estate” tasting. This is usually by appointment only, and, if you have the right networking contact, it’s free. But better than free, you get to taste the best wines offered by that winery and it often ends in referrals by the winemaker to one of his or her friends and the next tasting. Over the years Tom and I’ve done a lot of both types of tastings but there’s nothing that compares to sitting in a wine cave exploring the complexities of a great wine with the actual winemaker. Tasting in the cellar, the whole experience is different. I know in my head that you should never buy wine after drinking in the cellar, but because of my heart, I’m the sucker that always does. Why? Whether it’s in France, Hungary, Italy or Napa, you are exposed to new tastes and you create new memories while experiencing something extraordinary (did I mention the wine?).

When we finally got together with Tamara and compared our lists, we abandoned her list of Mogen-David, Boone’s Farm and 2-Buck Chuck in favor of some small and fairly exclusive places from my list. (Yes, it’s true I’m a wine snob, but it’s also true that life is too short to drink bad wine – big sis take note.) We started our first tasting just after 11:00am (hey – it was past noon back home) and the day just kept getting better and better.

Now, I’m not recommending that you serve wine to your attorney-clients and prospects (unless it’s after 12 noon local time). But what I am recommending is that you go beyond the same old tasting that every legal nurse consultant can offer. Use your Certified Legal Nurse Consultant skills to create the CLNC^®-equivalent of an estate tasting. Instead of offering attorney-prospects a brochure and business card, offer a free case screening and maybe a follow-up. For existing attorney-clients, offer them a new CLNC^® service you’ve never offered before (be careful here to make them select from your “wine” list, not theirs). Give them a set of interrogatories or requests for production for free, and before you know it they’ll be buying that CLNC^® service by the barrel, not the bottle.

Assume the role of the CLNC^® winemaker and try to create that same “tasting-wine-in-the-cellar” experience for your attorney-clients – but without the wine. When you’re tasting wine in the cellar you fall in love with the wines you try and before you know it, you’re not only buying the library of wines, you’ve also joined the wine club to get automatic shipments. You have a library of 30 CLNC^® services that a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant can provide to attorney-clients. Attorneys will always have cases so you want to create a CLNC^® club that makes them automatically think of you and your CLNC^® services as their cases come in. Don’t create a pedestrian, over-the-counter offering for an attorney-client or prospect when you have the ability, with your training and experience, to create something spectacular that will capture more of their business.

At the end of two days of wine tasting, Tom and I came home and hung our livers on the backyard clothesline to dry out. Now at home, Tom limits me to 2.5 ounces of wine so I don’t vasodilate and crater getting out of the Jacuzzi. It’s a good thing we don’t have cellars in Houston or else I’d move my office down there.

See you in the tasting cellar!

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Please comment and tell me how you create estate experiences for your attorney-clients.

Back in the days of color-coordinated suits, shoes and purses, Vickie would tell me, “It’s not easy being green. If it was, everyone would do it.”

Funny how just 10 years later all the buzz these days is about green this, green that. I mean we’ve got green cleaners, green light bulbs, green cars and now green computers and green textbooks. Everyone wants to be as green as they can, but other than ride in the backseat while my Dad drives what can you do?

First, let’s talk about green computing. There are lots of ways to save money, but there really isn’t too much “green software.” The most obvious “green tip” is to turn your computer off every night before you go to bed and then turn it on each morning so you can compulsively check your email. I’ve always believed that’s bad for the hardware, but lately I’ve been reading that today’s computers are designed to last over 40,000 power cycles. So, if you turn it on and off twice a day that’s 50 years of life in a world where we trade computers out every 4-5 years, or less. Your computer will outlive itself and maybe outlive you too.

So why don’t we turn our computers off at night? Well, two words, convenience (I know that’s only one word, but here in Texas we can drag it out over a week). We don’t like to wait for our computers to boot up. We want our email and we want it now. Even my computer loses about five minutes after I boot it and log on due to all the start-up scans, and automated crap that runs before I can use it. What is a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant to do if she wants an instant turn-on?

Using your green thumb to turn off just your monitor saves some energy and the computer keeps running so it’s instantly available. Using a screen saver, especially one of the cool ones that generates 3D graphics, uses power because it keeps the screen on instead of allowing it to dim.

Some greenier alternatives include putting your computer into “sleep” or “standby” mode or even “hibernation.” Most computers have variable power settings that you can program to shut down the display, stop the hard drive and put the computer into “sleep” or “standby” mode. When your system goes to “sleep” or “standby,” it’s still running so your active data stays in the RAM (Random Access Memory) and the power stays on – just at a much lower level. I’ve seen reports that state a computer in sleep mode will consume up to 70% less power than a computer sitting idle.

Putting your computer into hibernation is even greenier. Hibernation saves the most power of any of these methods. In hibernation, your computer actually shuts down just after saving your current computer state, session and data to the hard drive (so you’ll need to have ample disk space available to store the information). When you turn the computer back on, everything should return to the way it was when you put it into hibernation.

What’s the big difference? It takes longer to bounce back from hibernation than it does from sleep (just ask a bear). If you’re into immediate gratification, hibernation won’t do. You may even have to log back onto your computing session which slows things down more.

If you want to manage your Windows^® XP^® power settings yourself:

1. Right click anywhere on your desktop (you know the part of the screen where there are no icons). You can also get here by clicking the Start Button, then Control Panel, then Power Options.
2. Select “Properties.” You’ll get the “Display Properties” box.
3. Click Screen Saver and select “none.”
4. Then click the “Power” button in the bottom of the box under “Monitor Power.” You’ll get the “Power Options Properties” box and can create your own power settings there.
5. Remember to save them.
6. Click OK until you’ve closed all the boxes.

If this is too difficult, or you just want some of that feel-good sense you get from driving a Prius (stay out of the way of my global warmer), Verdiem^® Corporation makes a free (yes, I said free, meaning no green money going out) program called Edison that will manage your power for you. It will also show you how much money you’re saving. Simply go to Verdiem.com/Edison and select the program for your current operating system. Download the program, open it and tell it what your Work and Non-Work times are. It will then handle your power management and tell you how much annual savings you can expect. You don’t need to be an Edison-level genius to see how easy Edison makes it to be green.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I’m celebrating my birthday today and want to thank all of you who sent the fantastic cards, emails and presents. Your generous thoughts, prayers and messages mean so much to me. (Whoever sent the 2005 Chateau Petrus Pomeral… you really shouldn’t have.) Also, I would love to share what Tom has planned for this evening, but this blog is rated G. Suffice it to say, “What happens in Texas, stays in Texas.”

Each day I strive to wake up a new and different person and on my birthday I like to think I’ve become a lot more than just a year older.

Whoever says you can’t defy gravity as you get older has merely lost sight of who they are and stopped dreaming. I’m not one to be content riding the surface of life. I like to go all in – which my Italian heritage certainly trained me for.

Every year at the NACLNC^® Annual Conference I walk down the aisle and up to the stage to sing our CLNC^® national anthem with a ballroom full of excited and exciting CLNC^® consultants. To some (especially the introverts in the audience), I probably look foolish. And that’s one of my favorite strategies for NOT aging – daring to look foolish, but not too foolish (no karaoke for me).

In 1982 I started my legal nurse consulting business and pioneered the profession because I didn’t want to be shackled by someone else’s boundaries; especially those defined by hospital administrators and doctors. I didn’t want to stay the line. To succeed, I had to be willing to appear foolish along the way and sometimes do things that appeared foolish to other, shall we say “less imaginative,” types. As Sri Sri Ravi Shankar so eloquently wrote: “A fool is somebody who does something very unique, which is not accepted by others. What is wrong with being a fool? What is wrong with standing alone, apart from the crowd? Let the crowd act however it wants. I stand apart from that. I act my way.”

If you are never foolish in your life at least some of the time, you miss your life and the joy in it.

When your birthday comes around I wish for you the gift of defying gravity. Refuse to accept the limits that others define for you – both in your personal life and your legal nurse consulting business.

You CAN have all you’ve ever wanted, if only you dare to occasionally appear foolish to those who steadfastly stay the line. Give yourself the gift of acting and maybe looking foolish. After all, it’s your birthday – they make those silly hats for a reason – to foolishly have loads of fun.

Wherever you are on your birthday, I hope you hear my “Happy Birthday” greeting and this, my birthday message to you.

Happy Birthday whatever day yours is!

Success Is Inside!

Vickie,

As a busy Certified Legal Nurse Consultant with a number of attorney-clients, I’ve been wondering, what kind of personal information management (PIM) software should I be using?

Monica R., RN, CLNC

Hi Monica,

That’s a great question. PIM software, depending upon the complexity, can do something as simple as manage your contacts and address book, calendar and even, on higher-end systems, keep track of your marketing efforts and client communications.

To answer your question I consulted with Tom, our tech expert. His response was pretty complex getting into things like databases and the kind of tech-talk that techies do – just because they can. He also did some pretty good research. (Give a man a fish and you feed him dinner. Give him an Internet connection and you lose him for hours.) Rather than give you Tom’s answer (and bore you to near-death) let me distill what I think he said leaving out the gigabytes, megabytes and overbytes.

ACT! and Goldmine used to be pretty good, fast and simple-to-use programs and were the leaders in the PIM field. Goldmine’s personal edition has been discontinued and in its last iteration ACT! added a SQL (pronounced Sea-Quill) database (you don’t need to know what that is) to help keep track of the immense amount of data it generates and handles. This has apparently slowed it down to the point where you need two things to use it – a fast computer and some good computer skills (more than switching it on and off).

In other words some pretty good programs aren’t nearly as pretty or as good anymore. Tom also gave me some SaaS (more than his usual) which means, “Software as a Service,” ideas – this is where the actual software is hosted somewhere in the vast reaches of the Internet and you access it from anywhere. Salesforce.com, uReach^® and Google’s combination of applications are online only. Tom doesn’t recommend investing data in the “cloud” or with an Internet company that may not be there tomorrow (I keep telling him Google is safe). If you keep good back-ups you should be okay. Besides, that’s where all our data will be one day (go ahead and quote me).

What do I choose as a PIM? Well, I used to love the Palm Desktop (Tom says you can still download it for free from Palm, but check the license first.) before I started using Microsoft Outlook 2007. There’s a new Business Contact Manager for Outlook that will do everything the older PIMs do. We haven’t tried it yet but one of our vendors told me it was pretty good. We also have an enterprise-level CRM system that’s way too complex for most individuals (Tom’s words not mine).

My best advice for a legal nurse consultant? Save your money. Until you get over 50 attorney-clients I don’t believe you need to invest the time or money in buying, learning and programming a PIM. Outlook was free with our other software so why spend more money? We surveyed Certified Legal Nurse Consultants and the overwhelming response was that 80% of their revenues come from two to five of their attorney-clients. Don’t buy the geek software until you need it. Save yourself the aggravation and put the time and money into your CLNC^® business.

Success Is Inside!

Vickie

Even though I grew up in New Orleans, I love Texas, where I’ve lived since my college days. I agree with native Texans who say you never have to leave the state to experience what all the other states can offer put together. So, for the students and Certified Legal Nurse Consultants coming to the 2009 NACLNC^® Conference on the San Antonio Riverwalk, March 12-13, 2009, here are just 15 fun ways for you to enjoy your Texas-sized weekend.

1. Stroll the Riverwalk. Almost 2½ miles of footpaths, shade, restaurants, secret gardens and shopping. It’s magical in the evening when the trees are lit up, and your mouth waters from the delicious aromas coming from the fantastic array of restaurants.
2. Have tacos for breakfast. It’s the Texas way to start your day. Spice it up with some chorizo (Mexican sausage). Margaritas are optional.
3. Remember the Alamo! Yes you can’t go to San Antonio without a visit. Make sure you see Davy Crockett’s buckskin vest (bring your own coonskin cap).
4. Visit the Menger Hotel. Have a drink in the bar where Teddy Roosevelt recruited cowboys, cattle rustlers and Texas Rangers to form the Rough Riders he later led to fame in the famous charge up San Juan Hill. Take a wander around the hotel while you’re there – you may see a ghost (even before that drink).
5. Do your souvenir shopping at Market Square. You’ll find all the marimbas, maracas, piñatas, sombreros and coonskin caps you can carry as you walk these fun, pedestrian-only streets.
6. Take a meal at Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia. A San Antonio landmark, at least for tourists. It’s a great place to eat your first baby goat (cabrito – a Mexican delicacy). If someone’s already gotten your goat, then go to the panaderia (bakery) for some terrific Mexican-style pastries – a great choice any time of day!
7. Visit the world-famous Buckhorn Saloon and Museum. Proudly serving beer since 1881, it’s also home to the Hall of Texas History Wax Museum. Speaking of horny, it has over 1,200 trophy mounts from more than 500 species and “Old Tex,” the world’s largest mounted longhorn with horns that span eight feet, nine inches.
8. If you have a car, take a potty break at the Toilet-Seat Museum. It’s just ten minutes north of the city and I don’t think I need to say any more.
9. Military nurses might want to visit the Army Medical Department Museum at Fort Sam Houston (just one of four military bases in the San Antone area).
10. Eat a moveable feast by arranging for dinner on any of the barges that float up and down the San Antonio River – it’ll be a night to remember.
11. Think your spouse has big feet? Then go see the world’s largest pair of cowboy boots at the North Star Mall near the airport. At almost 40-feet tall and 20-feet long they’re even bigger than my husband’s feet.
12. Beat the heat with a root beer at Schilo’s Deli that is served in a frosted mug with a frothy head. Schilo’s has been a local destination since 1917. My favorite reason to go there – your second mug is free!
13. Ride to the top of the Tower of the Americas and look out over the beautiful Texas Hill Country – you can even wave to your ground-hugging CLNC^® friends far below.
14. Take a walking tour of San Antonio’s first neighborhood. La Villita is now a thriving art community that stands as a monument to San Antonio’s past.
15. Send your family to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for the day. They can feel like Superman on the Krypton Coaster, beat the heat in the water park or just hang out in the kiddie park. Whatever the age of your children – 5-55, they’ll love it!

Before you set out on your maverick tour of San Antonio, remember to come prepared to keep the pace at the 2009 NACLNC^® Conference.

• Come relaxed and ready to discover new ideas. The NACLNC^® Conference is much more fun when you’re rested, and you’ll learn so much more if you leave your stress behind.

• Pack energy bars, raw nuts and other healthy snacks to maintain your energy. The “Betcha Can’t” margaritas wear off quickly.

• Bring plenty of business cards to swap out with the 1,000 new CLNC^® friends you’ll meet.

• Go online and print the NACLNC^® Conference textbook sessions you plan on attending.

Have a great trip and check back on March 11, 2009 to read my tips on how to Master New Unconventional Strategies During the 2009 NACLNC^® Conference.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment on your favorite fun things to do in San Antonio.

I haven’t gotten into the “cloud” yet. Something about keeping my documents in the vast reaches of Cyberspace doesn’t appeal to me. But for a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who needs to move documents from one computer to another, I tend to prefer “sneakerspace.” This is where USB flash drives (or memory sticks) stand out. I don’t like to email confidential documents and burning them onto a CD is time consuming. Instead I jack a USB drive into one of the spare ports on my computer and drag the document(s) onto the drive. The hardest part is remembering to get the drive back from the recipient. It’s also another way to carry or send a set of your important data, reports, presentations, graphics, etc., from one location to another without having to carry a laptop or burn multiple CDs.

The first and smallest form of USB memory is the flash drive. A couple of years ago these were expensive – today I get USB memory sticks in the mail as gifts from vendors! There are no moving parts – just a solid stick of memory (like in your digital camera). If you buy one, SanDisk^® makes a great 4GB USB flash drive called the Cruzer^® Micro that retails at $35 (nobody pays retail anymore – I’ve seen them as low as $10 on Amazon.com ). First thing I do with mine is delete all the programming that comes preloaded. If 4GB isn’t enough for you they also come in 8GB and 16GB models. Go for as big as you can afford to lose (yes, you do lose them). Other manufacturers are Kingston^® (8GB DataTraveler about $18) and Corsair^® (Flash Voyager series – 8GB – about $25before rebate or 64 GB – about $125 before rebate. Make sure whatever flash drive you buy is USB 2.0 for faster data loading and transfer.

If you really want to have some fun with your USB flash drive – buy a USB Geek Teddy Bear for $17. It’s only a 1GB flash drive but the draw is that the drive is hidden inside a 3″ x 4″ teddy bear. You pop its head off and jack the bear’s neck into your computer. The decapitated bear looks really funny and it will definitely get plenty of attention at the next continuing legal education conference you attend to meet attorney-prospects.

Portable hard drives or pocket drives are the next step up in the world of portable data. These are small (20GB or so) external hard drives. Prices start around $40 and go up. Western Digital^® has a 500GB My Passport^® series selling for just over $100. After you load all your music onto your iPod you can drag it off your computer and onto one of these, freeing space on your hard drive. You can also store all those unedited photos from your vacations and keep one drive (or partition if you speak geek) as an archive for your reports and the research you’ve done for your attorney-clients. Many of these come with software that will allow you to automate back-up for your data at a time of your choosing.

If you really want to step up in the world of storage, shell out for a Terrabyte (1,000GB!) external hard drive (available from a variety of manufacturers). Some plug into your home network allowing you to back up all the computers in your home on one drive. Others may only connect to one computer at a time. Some of the more complex drives are even RAID Level 1 with data redundancy and hot-swappable drives (if you don’t know what that means, you probably don’t need to know – yet).

Remember, it’s not “if” your computer will fail, it’s “when.” Murphy’s Law says it will go at the worst possible time. The savvy legal nurse consultant is always prepared. You’ve got an Epi-kit in your purse now, you can keep your data there too.

Keep on techin’ (and always read the reviews before buying),

Tom

I always joke that, “you couldn’t pay me to run the Houston Marathon.” But there are people who get paid to do just that. Marathon running can seem like a lonely sport but not all marathon runners run alone. Even marathon runners hire subcontractors (at least the ones who win enough races to be able to afford them)!

Deriba Merga, who won the Chevron Houston Marathon back in January, 2009 (setting a new Texas record) hired four runners, called “rabbits.” The rabbit’s job is to help him keep his target pace and keep the wind off of him. The rabbits are not going to finish the race (how could they?). Each rabbit is expected to start the race with him and then drop off at predetermined points along the way depending upon their own running ability. They often train with the main runner.

Nurses are a tough bunch. We learn early in our careers to be independent (Don’t worry – I’ll turn this 250-lb patient by myself) because we know better than to ask for help. As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you need to change this mindset and start to think and act like a world-class marathon runner. The fastest way to expand your business is by subcontracting with other Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (CLNC^® consultants who have trained with you or you connected with at an NACLNC^® Conference). Like any world-class marathon runner, having great CLNC^® subcontractors will allow you to go the full 26+ miles, take a vacation and grow your legal nurse consulting business. Without CLNC^® subcontractors you can only bill for the limited number of hours you are able to work. The only way to fit 36 hours into a 24 hour day is with CLNC^® subcontractors.

Each additional legal nurse consultant you have working on your cases is an additional income stream. You can bill your attorney-clients your full hourly fee and pay your subs 50% of that fee. Subcontracting is what makes the difference between a part-time business and a booming shop. Have your CLNC^® subcontractors ready to go. That way, the next time an attorney tells you he has a bunch of cases, you can get your CLNC^® subcontractors on them quickly instead of saying “No, I’m too busy to take more than one case at a time.”

Even with CLNC^® subcontractors you are the one who has to run your legal nurse consulting business across the finish line. On that sunny January day in Houston, Deriba had to run the last nine miles (into a headwind) alone, after he left his last rabbit in the dust. He still set a record that day. Teyba Erkesso, who won the woman’s marathon that same day had a male rabbit who ran the entire race with her and she felt he contributed to her setting a record time. Think of subs as a multiplier. Instead of just one of you, now there’s a whole team of CLNC^® marathoners running beside you on your team. (Just don’t call them rabbits!)

I’ll be with you for the long run – just as long as it’s not the Houston Marathon.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Read more on Subcontracting Do’s and Don’ts.

How would you rate your passion about your career? What kind of flowers would you send to your legal nurse consulting business? Or send to your nursing job at the hospital, if you’re not yet a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant? Would you send roses, lilies or a tumbleweed?

Do you love what you do? If you went to an amusement arcade and dropped a quarter into one of those machines where you squeeze a pair of grips or a mechanical hand, would your passion rating be “stone cold” or “hot tamale?” Did I hear you say “hot tamale?” Great! But what if you said “stone cold?”

The passionate path isn’t quick and easy. After I became an independent legal nurse consultant, I went to law school at night. I was also consulting with a group of attorneys who, after I graduated, offered me a position as an associate attorney. I graciously and easily declined, thinking, “Why would I want to do that? I’m doing what I love, having more freedom and making more money than any new associate attorney.” A year later a partner at the law firm approached me and said, “Okay, if you won’t come on as an associate, we’re inviting you to be a partner.”

This attractive offer raised the stakes considerably. Suddenly saying yes to my passion wasn’t so easy. I loved consulting with these attorneys, and a partnership would guarantee a bigger and brighter future every year, financially and in other respects.

But after my ego stopped dancing around the room pumping its arm and shouting “Yes!,” I declined the offer. Practicing law was not my passion, even with such ideal conditions. I remember saying to Tom, “There are lawyers who would die for this offer. Am I crazy to turn this down?” Choosing passion paid off big. My passion was so strong that my business soon soared despite my lack of business training or education. I surpassed the law firm’s offer in terms of money, vacation time and flexibility. To this day, I am able to maintain my freedom, continue creating my own financial security and, most of all, enjoy the legal nurse consulting industry I created.

That kind of decision isn’t easy. What’s easy is to compromise, say yes to a lukewarm interest because we, or someone else, think it’s a smarter decision. Live and work your passions and the reward will come.

When you get married, you go into it with the plan of being in the marriage for a long time. Business is a lot like a marriage. It’s a lot of work with ups and downs, fast times and slow times. If you haven’t yet started a business, know that once you do, you’ll spend more time in that career and business than you will in your marriage. We’re often at work more than we are at home with our family.

If you’ve chosen to do something you love, and can be passionate about, you won’t be working for a living, you’ll be living for working, and because you’ll be doing it with joy, you’ll be able to do it a lot longer.

Design your nursing career or legal nurse consulting business to be your passion – the one you love. Choose what you love.

Back in 1990, I was forced to make a choice between money and passion. I chose passion. I’ll be sending my business 12 dozen red roses tomorrow. What will you send your business or career this Valentine’s Day?

Success Is Inside!

Entrepreneurs are using the newest Internet trend to meet and collaborate with colleagues worldwide. Professional social networks such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter and Facebook, can provide legal nurse consultants another way to promote and expand their CLNC^® business.

Social media marketing is the systematic approach to using social networks and other “Web 2.0″ and “Web 3.0″ technologies as a part of an all inclusive marketing plan.

Step One: Define your goals, then match the network tool to your goal.

Goals vary from business-to-business and professional-to-professional, but the identification of goals is key to determining what characteristics are needed in a social network.

Step Two: Set boundaries and budgets that govern the efforts expended in social networking.

Most professional social networks offer a free, and one or more “premium,” membership. In most or all of those with “premium” memberships, it is possible to “earn” free premium upgrades by recruiting new members to the network platform. With these incentives, it is only necessary to spend money on professional social network membership if a specific paid premium membership function or service is needed to achieve the goals set in Step One. This does not mean that social networking is free. Most successful business social networkers agree that success requires a minimum of 40 hours per month spent building the network and communicating with network members and online contacts.

The biggest area of budget bloat for online networking is time. Time has a definite value in real dollars and time spent on social media marketing must provide a real and measurable return on investment.

It is all too easy to spend endless hours enjoying the many “features” of social networking sites. Whether answering posted questions and earning the tag “Expert” or racking up endorsements and testimonials, every minute spent online must have a purpose, must contribute to achieving your legal nurse consulting goals and must provide a return.

Step Three: Begin networking.

Once your goals, budgets and boundaries are set, it is time to begin networking. Whether online or in person, the most important tool of the social networker is dialogue. Online networking must include direct and individual communications with every member of the network.

Every time a new member joins your network, that new contact must receive a personalized email welcoming them to the network. This mandates that the new contact’s network profile be read and the contact’s interests be made the focus of the email.

The process of customizing the welcome to the new contact has a side benefit to the business because it forces the business to define its relevance to an ever expanding and ever deepening market demographic described by the online social network.

Step Four: Communicate and connect, don’t just collect.

The object of the entire social media marketing effort is to build a network with a personal bond and the ability to refer paying customers or become a paying customer. This means the network members must become raving fans even before they make a buy or referral.

Those who have been networking in real life for years know this is much harder than turning a satisfied customer into a raving fan. Unlike in-person networking, online networking limits the level of interpersonal exchange and thus “likability.”

A social network makes the transition to raving fans because of the personality of the network leader. Use the regular communication with network members as a “personality conduit.”

Step Five: Attract like-minded people, then lead them.

The key to becoming a leader in a market niche is to become a gathering point for other online professionals and their respective networks. All professional social networking websites have the ability to create clubs, or groups, or collectives. By volunteering to create and manage such a group, the leader becomes the point of convergence for everyone interested in the topic.

Step Six: Make it real in real life.

Depending on the local culture and networking traditions as well as the subculture of the online network, a traditional “dinner and drinks” networking event may be in order, but a “picnic in the park” or a “burgers and baseball” format may be more appropriate. The key is not the surroundings, but the opportunity for people who have built an online, but nonetheless real relationship, to put a handshake, or a hug, to the profile and prose.

Guest Blogger Profile

Brian Horn is an Internet marketing consultant who specializes in search engine marketing, site optimization, social media marketing, link building and web data analytics. Brian has consulted with Vickie Milazzo Institute for over three years.

Brian also speaks at seminars and conferences throughout the U.S. and Canada on how to use the Internet to improve business.