February 2010

I just stumbled over what I think has to be the handiest, free, desktop shortcut ever. It’s called “Close All Windows” and that’s exactly what it does! If, at the end of a long day of slaving over a hot keyboard, you hear your spouse shout, “Honey, wine’s open!” What do you need to do? That’s right, close every open window on your computer by shutting down every program one at a time. That can be a tedious task if you’re a busy, multitasking, CLNC^® consultant.

To avoid this hassle, simply visit this page, download the CloseAll.zip file to your desktop or downloads folder and then unzip it. Next, locate the CloseAll.exe program (you’ll see a red “X“). Right click on that x and drag it to your Windows^® Quick Launch toolbar or your Desktop, then let go and left click on “Create Shortcut Here.” That’s it!

Now, at the end of your day, if you’ve stored “Close All Windows” on your desktop, simply click on Window’s cool “Show Desktop” icon (located in your Quick Launch toolbar) to clear your screen, then double-click on the red “X” icon (or skip “Show Desktop” and double-click it on your Quick Launch toolbar). Close All Windows will instantly shut down all open programs, and if you have one running with unsaved data, you’ll get the option to save that data.

This is a handy little program and it’s free. I highly recommend it.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

As I embarked on my new career as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, I received a case from an attorney and I wanted to do the best job ever. So I reviewed the records over and over until I knew those records like the back of my hand.

I met with my attorney-client to discuss my opinions on the case and as I was sitting in her office going over the events and the records that supported each opinion, I felt as though I was speaking in slow motion and so below her level of knowledge. All of a sudden she stood up behind her desk and yelled out, “What?” I stopped in my tracks and sat there with what I am sure was a blank stare. I didn’t know what I did wrong or what I had said to offend her. She continued, “What did you just say?” I repeated what I had said about what had happened to this patient in a moment of critical care. She again said, “What? Where did you find that information? Show me where it says that.” With trembling hands, I showed her and she ran out of the room. I sat there holding my breath. I was sure I had said something horribly wrong. Maybe I insulted her and didn’t realize it.

After some time, she returned to the room with two gentlemen. I thought to myself, okay, these must be the bouncers and I am being thrown out. The two men sat down next to me. I had the records in my lap and dropped them. I am sure I wasn’t even breathing. Was I blue yet?

The older male attorney started to explain to me that I had found the missing link. I had found the smoking gun. I had found… whatever other metaphors I can come up with. I had found information that was invaluable in the case. No one had found what I had found, not even the MD experts. Oh, and by the way, I could breathe again.

I had found the key to winning the case and we did ultimately succeed in winning. I felt so good.

I now consult with two other attorneys in that firm and also consult for two of their other offices. But on that day, I felt like I could conquer the world. This experience gave me the confidence I needed to keep going. And here I am ten years later still going strong.

Nikki J. Chuml, RNC, FMC, PRN, CLNC

To paraphrase Seth Godin, there’s only one thing you have to do to be “remarkable” and that’s actually, “to be remarkable.” He has also suggested that a critic, referred to as a troll, can interfere with your remarkability. My concept of a troll is just the opposite – a troll is a pretender selling nothing more than pretense.

I believe to be remarkable, you must deliver remarkable service. You can’t just be a salesperson, promising and promising what you won’t or cannot deliver. That turns you from genuinely remarkable into a remarkable troll.

I recently ran into just such a sales-troll. He personally came to Vickie Milazzo Institute, did a wonderful presentation, charmed our staff, promised the moon and, when it came time to deliver, sent work product that was unsatisfactory, full of errors and which didn’t reflect agreed upon delivery metrics. When he was challenged on the failure to deliver, his troll-like act was to crawl back under his bridge or wherever it is that trolls live.

I’m sure that you’ve run into this troll-type. The person who called you every day to make the sale, but after the sale is suddenly unavailable, out of the office, on a mission trip to Lower Handstandastan, lost his cell phone, has the swine flu or is at the funeral of yet another “close” relative (how many grandparents can you really lose?). Eventually, you get a call back, accompanied with more promises and then, later on, more broken promises and disappointment.

I encourage CLNC^® consultants to offer risk-free guarantees as a standard part of their legal nurse consulting business. After all, the first mission of any company is to serve its customers to their satisfaction. Sure, some customers will be harder to satisfy than others and certainly there are one or two who may never be satisfied. How you and your CLNC^® business handle those customers is what makes you “remarkable,” not your success in ignoring those customers. Sometimes they even push you to another, better level.

For me business is personal and the team at Vickie Milazzo Institute knows that I take the satisfaction of all of our prospects, CLNC^® students and Certified Legal Nurse Consultants personally.

Remember when you were a kid, everyone got a trophy for playing, even if their team came in last. Well we’re not kids anymore – we’re adults in an adult world where if we want to feel good, we have to do something to genuinely feel good about.

Service is what you do for the customers and sometimes in spite of the customers. “Can’t please everyone” isn’t an aphorism, it’s a cop-out. Sam Walton once said, “The customer isn’t always right, but he’s still the customer.” Here at Vickie Milazzo Institute we’re dedicated to providing customer service, delivering what we promise and standing behind our guarantee. Beware of sale-trolls in all their shapes and forms and whatever you do – don’t settle for less than you deserve. That only feeds the trolls and encourages more troll-like behavior.

As for the troll mentioned in this blog, we somehow managed to end our relationship professionally and amicably. I wished him future success, knowing full well he is destined for failure. How do I know?  Because now I am being serviced by someone who is genuinely remarkable. In today’s post bubble economy the world can no longer afford a pretender. I for one will be glad to be rid of the trolls.

Success Is Inside!

Time for another CLNC^® sound off! Not having learned my lesson from last week, once more into the unknown I go, my CLNC^® amigos. Vickie and I have been Blackberry users for so long I can hardly remember a time without omnipresent email, calendar and contacts. So, it’s with a certain amount of fear and trepidation that I bring up the fact that we’ve outgrown our current Blackberries and are looking for the next best thing.

That’s where Certified Legal Nurse Consultants come in. I’ve heard raves about the Blackberry Bold^®, seen the myriad of zombie-like minions tapping and sliding away on their iPhones like Alice-the-Goon from Popeye while muttering, “I love Steve Jobs, I love Steve Jobs.” I even listened to a friend describe his Droid with a near-religious fanaticism. This has left me up in the air about what I should choose for Vickie and my next phones.

The Blackberry tends to be the smartphone of choice for many business users and even regular people. Go to a Little League^® game here in our hood and just about every parent there is busy emailing each other their schedules and updates, but the Blackberry Enterprise software has a propensity to cause synchronization problems for business users who live and die by their calendars.

iPhones stubbornly refuse to multitask, are slaves to AT&T coverage area and have such a high “cool” factor that they’re rapidly becoming “uncool,” but that doesn’t stop me from wanting one. Droids seem to have been adopted entirely by the “geek” class which, believe it or not, includes me out. That’s why I’m asking you for your help.

Let me know what smartphone you use and why you like it or dislike it. Do you use it to surf the Internet or not, do you email, text, keep your calendar on it, etc? Tell me how the sound quality is when you’re making a phone call. If you’ve had issues that have caused you to switch phones, I’d like to know what they were. I don’t want to hear any complaining about a particular carrier, their customer service or anything else. I only want to hear concrete and real advice regarding the iPhone, Blackberry and Droid or another choice. Remember I’m counting on your feedback for making my purchasing decision.

Hurry! Here’s your chance – ready, set, go!

Help keep me techin’,

Tom

Engagement is about committing to achieve big. Talk about a group who is willing to engage or commit. Nurses are tycoons of engagement. Nurses commit themselves to situations that make normal people faint. Every nurse I know is fully committed – or maybe ready to be committed. We’ve all worked that shift. Nurses know how to engage and get things done. In the middle of horrendous situations, you instinctively triage on the fly – you resuscitate, defibrillate and medicate and then you go to work. Total engagement.

You have the strength of engagement. But are you willing to engage all the way in resuscitating yourself and your nursing career? There won’t be a code team coming to rescue you or your career. It’s entirely up to you. Resuscitating your career requires the same level of commitment you would give to a patient who just arrested, but is even more long term.

When I decided to start my legal nurse consulting business in 1982, I knew a lot of smart nurses who had dreams and ideas, but they didn’t do anything with them. They didn’t engage, they didn’t take action. They had their dreams, but they were disappointed. Some were bitter and angry. I’ve always said that dreams can make a person miserable, if you don’t ever act on them. It’s the action behind your dream that makes you happy.

When I launched my legal nurse consulting business, I had a full-time nursing job; so to succeed in my new business, I committed to take action every day. I learned that in the beginning it didn’t matter so much what I did, but that I did something. I was developing the habits and the discipline to make my legal nurse consulting business dream a reality. Whatever your dream is, you need to engage big. Start with the first 30 days. Turn that into 60 then 90. Success is in the motion and in getting the motion moving. You can’t start a business without starting something.

The more action you take, the easier it is to step out the next time. Anything you’re going for: career advancement, starting a CLNC^® business, improving a professional relationship – do something. Once you’ve committed to take action every day, then it’s time to focus on and engage in the impactful actions that give you the result you want.

What you engage and focus on is where you will yield results. You’ll need to break the feel-good addictions, and there are so many of them – checking email, surfing the Internet, watching TV and keeping up with your friends on Facebook – all of which take us away from big and important things. If you’re spending more than eight hours a day at work, you need to be extra vigilant about cutting out any feel-good addictions in order to have the maximum energy and focus for your CLNC^® business. The wrong focus might make you feel good about how many points you’ve scored in Mobster Wars or Farm-gate but, at the end of the day if all you’ve done is clicked your mouse, how’s that working for you and your dreams?

Where and how we focus also includes our families and friends. Society is complex, with family, friends, career, spiritual and social obligations. Nurses can handle a lot, and if we’re not careful, we find ourselves doggedly committing our energy to every person or situation that demands our time. My motto is nurses CAN do anything – not nurses SHOULD do everything. Set your own expectations for what you want to accomplish, stop being a commitment queen (for male nurses that’s commitment king) and shed the guilt for not doing everything for everybody.

It’s okay to say no. Say no to all the laundry, all the housework and all the carpools and preserve some time for your own dreams. Delegate. Your spouse and kids will benefit from participating in family life and learning new skills like washing dishes or sorting socks.

Engagement starts with choice. Choose the goal for your engagement with your passions and vision in mind. Resolve to engage in something big today.

Success Is Inside!