May 2010

I’ve told you about the bamboo that highlights my morning tea time. Lately there’s been a pair of northern cardinals living in the bougainvillea growing outside my living room windows. They’re a matched set, a male and female, and whenever they appear, they bring a joyful mindfulness to my day, reminding me that life is good. I used to think they mate for life (like me) but found out that it’s more likely just for one season. I also learned that during the wooing process the male will not only sing to the female, but he’ll bring her seeds and feed them to her beak-to-beak. I’m still waiting to see that action (and I don’t mean from Tom).

Blogging about the bamboo and the cardinals reminds me of another practice I’d like to share with my Certified Legal Nurse Consulting colleagues. That’s the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness, in its simplest form, is simply being fully in the present and taking in things as they are. It is also being fully aware of our body’s sensations, such as our breathing. It can be fully embracing the joy I feel watching the cardinals hop from branch to branch. When you’re walking, it can be feeling the satisfaction of using your muscles, noticing and appreciating the beauty of the budding trees or smelling the hamburgers from the local cafe.

I’ve found that it is easier to be mindful when I’m doing nonwork-related activities such as hiking in the woods. When I’m working, I need to be intentional about mindfulness and not let my mind start flying in a thousand different directions about what has to get done by whom. I need to be mindful about eliminating the clutter that distracts me from my big vision. I have a friend who defines multitasking as worrying about many things at the same time. Worry is a completely useless emotion and that’s why mindfulness is so relevant to everything we do. Mindfulness gives us the focus we need to complete even the most challenging projects.

What about you? When you’re working in your legal nurse consulting business on a report for an attorney-client, are you thinking about the time-crunch, how much you don’t like typing or are you wishing your children would quit interrupting your work? Are you wondering how you can find a CLNC^® subcontractor with a particular specialty or where you’ll locate an expert witness for a case. Is your mind flying everywhere but on your work? Be honest, it happens to all of us.

It’s been said that any activity that is done mindfully is a form of meditation. In other words, if you fully release yourself into the work, feeling the mouse in your hand, listening to the clacking of the keys on your keyboard, marveling at the science that brings the Internet into your home and the computer technology that allows you to share your knowledge with the attorney-client, you turn a chore into a mindful activity. Even pausing to appreciate the interplay of the sun in the branches of the trees outside your window or the sound of your house as it heats in the day can be an exercise in mindfulness.

Apply mindfulness to anything you consider a chore and turn it from a chore into a meditation – dialing the phone and being fully present in the conversation, enjoying the smell and warmth of the clothes as you fold them from the dryer or just feeling the texture of the crisp pages of the research study you’re reading. I’m trying to be mindful as I type this. I’ve closed my email program and am engaging my fingers on the keyboard, listening to my own mind and blocking out the ringing phones in the office.

But, don’t force mindfulness, it needs to become a natural act. Muho Noelke has pointed out “…we have to forget things like I should be mindful of this or that. If you are mindful, you are already creating a separation (I – am – mindful – of – ….). Don’t be mindful, please! When you walk, just walk. Let the walk walk. Let the talk talk. Let the eating eat, the sitting sit, the work work. Let sleep sleep.”

That’s the first step on the path to true mindfulness. Don’t “be” mindful, “become” mindful.

Success Is Inside!

Recently a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant contacted the Institute and told us about a subcontractor she’d hired. After completing the project, the subcontractor proceeded to list herself on several different social media sites as being associated with the contracting CLNC^® consultant. The subcontractor then used the contracting CLNC^® consultant’s “LinkedIn” profile and network to contact other parties announcing her association with the contracting CLNC^® consultant and marketing her availability to subcontract.

Looking at this through the subcontracting retro spectroscope, I believe that every CLNC^® consultant who is using subcontractors should include a “social media nondisclosure clause” in their subcontracting agreements. I don’t recommend hiding the existence of subcontractors from your attorney-clients and that’s not what this is about.
 
Simply speaking, your subcontractors should not use your social media and your connections for their own benefit, at least not without your expressed permission. I asked Tom to draft some language that you can add to your CLNC^® subcontractor agreements (with your contract attorney’s approval) and here’s the result:

SOCIAL MEDIA NONDISCLOSURE: Subcontractor agrees that throughout the term of this Agreement, and for a period of two (2) years after the termination or expiration of this Agreement, Subcontractor shall not, without the prior written consent of Company, in any way or in any form disclose, publicize, market or advertise to any contact of Company or any other person, party or company via any form of social media including, but not limited to, FaceBook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn, the fact that this Agreement exists, that you are working or have worked as a subcontractor with Company or any other facts regarding this Agreement and our relationship.

This may seem strict, but you don’t want your subcontractors marketing to, or associating with, your social media contacts. If they’re already a friend on FaceBook, you don’t want them discussing business on your Wall. As the legal nurse consulting world adapts to social media, so must our contracts.

Success Is Inside!

I’m not a Mac^® user. I do think they’re wonderful computers but like anyone who likes a challenge, I live in a Microsoft^® Windows^® world. I’ve always wondered how Mac users who travel get along in a predominately Windows world? After all, most hotel business centers usually have low-end, Windows-based desktop computers (to keep costs down). What happens to Mac users? Do they have to be bilingual and speak two computing languages? Or, is this Windows predominance what forces them to carry an Apple^® laptop with them every time they leave home (like one of our CLNC^® Mentors who carries her slick Mac with her on every road trip we make)?

The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Deerfield, Illinois, the site of our May 2010 and 2011 CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminars, finally got things right for those who are computer-impaired. Instead of requiring you to haul your Mac along, they put higher-end, dual-boot Macs in the business center allowing them to cater to almost every computer user (except for the Linux geeks). They’ve given their guests the best of both computing worlds.

This is a terrific idea that should be the business model for the future (or until Microsoft finally buys and dismantles Apple). I’ve always said “Can’t we just all get along?” Finally somebody took me up on it, at least in the computing world. The world would be a better place (and require less rebooting) if only more business centers were this progressive.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I’ve got a confession to make. I’m not hooked on Lost. I don’t know what “frack” means and I’ve never watched American Idol. I used to keep my television in my closet (it was a 12″ black and white) and it wasn’t out of shame – I just didn’t watch TV. Even though we now have one of those state-of-the-art flat screen, surround-sound systems (ask Tom for details), I still don’t watch TV. I will also confess there are a couple of exceptions. I set aside an evening for each of the Grammys^®, Golden Globes^®, Super Bowl^® (for Tom) and the Academy Awards^® as sacrosanct (don’t call me, I won’t answer). But the other 361 days of the year, my TV is off. My Google^® homepage tells me the news headlines and Tom keeps me in the loop. If the world was going to come to an end, my executive team would notify me and ask me to release the Institute employees early so they can go home and prepare (being on the Gulf Coast, I’ve even gotten tsunami warnings). In other words, TV doesn’t play a role in my life – it’s not an early warning system and it’s not a distraction.

Now, on the other extreme, I know legal nurse consultants who live and die by their TVs. Between reruns of Seinfeld, Friends and shows like The Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars, they eat, sleep, relax and work. That’s okay for them and possibly for you. I understand the need to let your mind coast and let your body relax. One of my best friends gets home from work each day in time to watch Oprah – that’s how he (correct, this is not a typo) relaxes. I relax through books, movies, Jacuzzi^®, meditation and a glass of a great red wine.

Let me ask you a question – if you turned your television off for just one night a week and put that time into your legal nurse consulting business, what dividends would it return?

TV is passive. As Zen master Takuan says, “This day will not come again.” Every hour you sit in front of a television you’re accomplishing nothing. Each of those hours is irretrievably lost to you. Sure, the next morning you and your friends can discuss Glee or which of the fifteen hundred versions of CSI had the most fun autopsy scene, but where will that get your legal nurse consulting career?

I challenge all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants to take one day a week and turn off your TV. Put that evening into your legal nurse consulting business. Concentrate on a different aspect of your business each week, marketing, report writing or a new CLNC^® service. See what you’ll reap from that time. You’ll never be able to say “I’m too busy to…” again because you’ll have recovered 2-3 hours of time lost from Lost. If this whole topic is making you nervous, you can always TiVo^® your shows to watch them at a later date (after you’ve accomplished all you want).

If you dare to fully realize the power of this, try taking a week off from the TV. Put that time into your CLNC^® business and your family. You’ll make exponential leaps in both. I warn you though, this powerful practice is not for everyone – it’s only for those who choose to take back their time and make something powerful from it.

Success Is Inside!

What are you waiting for before you start your career and business as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant? In this video, Doris Huegel, RN, CLNC shares that after attending the CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Program, she didn’t even wait to unpack her bags before marketing herself to an attorney-prospect near her hometown in rural Pennsylvania. Her enthusiasm and initiative secured that first case for her. Congratulations Doris for going for it.

Success Is Inside!

I’ve blogged about ways to extend the life of the battery in that laptop you’ve purchased for your legal nurse consulting business. I’ve also blogged about the need for every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant to have an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) on every computer and expensive electronic device in your home. I’ve even discussed the ways that a laptop dock can extend your workspace into multiple monitors and keep you from having to constantly plug and unplug peripheral equipment.

Today, I’m going to address a question that has no answer – should I keep my battery in my laptop when it’s in the dock? That’s an interesting question and I believe the non-answer depends on a couple of different variables. In the good old days (weren’t they all?) before Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, it was necessary to run older Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cad) batteries through full cycles, or close to full cycles, between charges. Constantly topping off a battery by charging it after every use degraded the battery’s life and reduced the time a legal nurse consultant could work off-site and on battery power.

Today, a combination of new technology and Lithium does more than make you feel good, it eliminates some of the need for battery “maintenance.” According to Dell, their newer batteries are designed to stop charging when they register full. This means that while your computer is docked, the battery is not charging. Dell also states that topping off and cycling are no longer issues. Apple takes a more conservative approach and recommends that you fully cycle your battery at least once a month and store it with a 50% charge if you’re not going to use if for six months (as if we could figure that out in advance).

So who’s right? I think both are. I leave one battery in my docked computer trusting it won’t get damaged by the heat and will be fully charged when I grab the laptop for an emergency run to Starbucks. I also try and fully discharge my battery on a regular basis, but will still top it off any chance I get while traveling. Finally, I agree with both Dell and Apple that the average laptop battery will last 18-24 months before requiring replacement.

Now, back to my original question, why leave a battery in the laptop? Well, if you don’t have a UPS and your electrical power fails while you’re writing a report for your CLNC^® business’s most important attorney-client, your laptop will seamlessly switch back to the battery (if it’s in place) without a loss of work. If you don’t have a UPS and have removed the battery, your computer will black out just like the lights and your work will be lost.

If you have a UPS in place, it will continue to supply power to your electronics for some indeterminate period of time (depending upon the size of the UPS and the power drain). This is one situation where bigger truly is better – a bigger UPS will power your laptop and your dual monitors longer than a smaller one. If you are working with the battery in your laptop, you can pull the laptop’s power plug out of the UPS and the UPS will run just the monitors and the laptop will run on its battery until the power comes back on (if you don’t mind working in the dark where I usually am anyway).

What it comes down to is that a docked laptop with an installed battery and a UPS is like having two insurance policies. Just like insurance, hopefully you’ll never need it but when you do need it, you’ll be glad you have it for your legal nurse consulting business. A docked laptop without a battery and without a UPS is an accident waiting to happen. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of repounding that keyboard to try and recreate your work. So dock your laptop with the battery in place and keep a good battery in your UPS.

Keep on techin’ (even in the dark),

Tom

Nurses have the strength of enterprise. Think about all the creative, enterprising ways you’ve worked around administration, the doctors, the insurance companies – all on behalf of your patients. To satisfy everybody you have to be enterprising. But being enterprising isn’t just about satisfying patients, doctors and administration. It’s about being enterprising in the pursuit of your career and professional advancement. You must be as enterprising as the CEO of a successful business.

One way CEOs are more enterprising is they expect a payoff for every venture, large or small. After I got my masters degree, my hospital failed to acknowledge it. I didn’t even get a 25¢/hour pay raise. I thought this venture deserved a payoff, so I gave myself a pay raise by announcing my resignation and getting a job at a hospital that recognized my new level of knowledge.

A few years after I started my legal nurse consulting business I attended law school at night. At the time, I thought I would be interested in practicing law, but later decided I preferred the payoff of the freedom and flexibility that my legal nurse consulting business afforded me.

After I graduated, one of the law firms I consulted with offered me a position as an associate attorney. I didn’t have to think hard about the offer. Not only was I already doing what I loved, I was also earning more money as a legal nurse consultant than any of the associate attorneys just out of law school. Saying no was easy.

Then, a year after I politely turned down the associate position, they upped the ante and offered me a partnership at the law firm. Now, the stakes were much higher. These were some of the best medical-malpractice attorneys in Texas! Between working with these attorneys and thinking about the partner bonuses, that offer was more lucrative than I thought my legal nurse consulting and education businesses could ever be.

But then I remembered that payoff isn’t always about money. Practicing law wouldn’t provide the emotional payoff I was receiving from helping nurses start their own legal nurse consulting businesses. My passion was teaching, not lawyering. My enterprising spirit (and intuitive vision) told me something grander lay ahead. So I stayed with what I loved and passed on what certainly seemed to be a firm financial future. Eventually, as our intuitive decisions often do, my decision paid off, both financially and emotionally.

When you take on a new venture, make a career decision or simply choose how to spend your time, you should ask, what’s the payoff? Is it monetary, is it good for your spirit, is it good for your career, is it good for your life? If you say no to this opportunity, is there a bigger payoff available to you? You may have to look hard and be imaginative. The profit may not always be in cash but there needs to be a payoff. Passion for your life and work is the best profit of all. But you still don’t want to underprice yourself. So reach for the stars – you deserve them, whether it’s in business or simply personal.

Success Is Inside!

I’d like to share a conversation I had with Brian Horn, a social media expert, on the importance of participating in social media as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. One important point Brian makes is that you can participate in social media in a meaningful way without taking too much time away from your legal nurse consulting business. Enjoy the video.

Success Is Inside!

Happy International Nurses Day! And, happy birthday to Florence Nightingale – today, May 12, is her birthday. She laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment, in 1860, of her nursing school at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London, the first secular nursing school in the world. The annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday.

It is fitting that on this day we express our gratitude to our friends at Gannett Healthcare Group, publishers of Nursing Spectrum, NurseWeek and Nurse.com. We are honored that they joined us at our 2010 National Alliance for Legal Nurse Consultants (NACLNC^®) Conference to share some original letters written by Florence Nightingale. These original letters, written in 1861, are truly national treasures and were on display during the NACLNC^® Conference. It was truly fitting as 2010 is the centennial of her death and the International Year of the Nurse.

Photos taken at the Conference are shown here – it was an exceptional exhibit.

Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy to English parents and lived from 1820-1910, 90 years. She set the stage for us “to bring into the field a higher class of persons.” Follow this link to read more about this caring, strong-willed founder of modern nursing.

The exhibit melded well with our NACLNC^® Conference theme: Take the Stage for Legendary CLNC^® Success. The nurses in attendance were impressed, and also touched as they were reminded of the legendary example Florence Nightingale set for all of us.

Thanks again to our friends from Gannett Healthcare Group (Nursing Spectrum, NurseWeek and Nurse.com) for their generous sharing of this exhibit with all the Certified Legal Nurse Consultants at the 2010 NACLNC^® Conference.

Nursing has such a rich history and this is one of those wonderful reminders of just how rich our history is. Happy Birthday, Florence!

Success Is Inside!

Every CLNC^® consultant using social media to market your Certified Legal Nurse Consulting business, raise your left hand (keeping your right hand on your mouse). That’s terrific! I know a lot of you participate and interact regularly with Vickie on Facebook^® and Twitter^TM. I also know that Facebook and Twitter can be semi-frustrating if you’re using them directly through a web browser instead of an application like TweetDeck or HootSuite^®. Why frustrating? Because you need to refresh the page on a regular basis to see the updates.

Likewise, if you’re a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who’s bidding on business equipment on eBay^® or another auction site and you want to keep ahead of last minute snipers or just watch bidding trends, you face a similar problem. A problem whose only remedy is sitting, mouse-in-hand, and relentlessly clicking the “refresh” button on your browser.

Well my CLNC^® amigos, I have a solution for you, at least if you’re a Firefox^® user. Simply visit the Add-ons for Firefox page for ReloadEvery and install this nifty little add-on. It allows you, by right-clicking on an open web page, to select an automatic refresh interval for that page. You can even set your own custom refresh timings. This allows you to watch your Facebook wall or profile page and keep up with Vickie and your CLNC^® colleagues without the need to click the refresh button. It does have the innate danger of wiping out that half-written, pithy status update you typed in and hadn’t yet sent so be careful when you use it. Internet Explorer^® and Safari^® users are out of luck but I’ve read that the Opera^® browser has this already built-in.

With ReloadEvery installed, you always have the most current page/news in front of you and you’ll never miss a Farmburg Piglet request again. I think this is just another reason to move to Firefox as your web browser for your legal nurse consulting business.

Keep on techin’,

Tom