We are deep into the information age. In fact, there’s so much information coming at us from so many different directions that “information anxiety” should probably be a DSM-V diagnosis. Too much information (TMI) is our reality, and while there’s a distinct difference between quantity and quality, it’s easy to get sucked into the low quality noise. Do we really want to reduce our lives to the details of Ashton Kutcher’s sex life, Alec Baldwin’s musing about flight attendants or a constant stream of updates from “friends” we haven’t seen since high school?

Recently I was involved in three different mentoring situations with three legal nurse consultants. The first one forgot and missed our phone appointment. The second failed to complete the simple advance assignment I’d given her, despite the fact that she has more than enough free time on her hands – I know because I get her constant Facebook updates. The third is raising four sons, holding down a full-time nursing job and still made time to complete the assignments on schedule and attend an additional mentoring session for an upcoming interview with a potential attorney-client. Which Certified Legal Nurse Consultant do you think will be most successful?

In these busy times fraught with TMI what will you do to cut out the noise? Make a wise decision – your CLNC^® business depends on it. Now that’s a bit of information that really merits your attention.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share what you will do to cut out the noise.

Vickie,

I am an independent Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, but for one attorney-client, I work in-house one day a week. I no longer want to work in-house, as I prefer to focus on the attorney-clients that hire me as an independent consulting expert. I am very successful and do not need this job but I don’t know how to tell the attorney without burning a bridge or damaging what’s been a great relationship. What should I do?

Liz, RN, CLNC

Hi Liz,

Congratulations on making a decision that will ultimately strengthen your CLNC^® business. Start by telling the attorney you are expanding your legal nurse consulting business and can no longer work in-house for him. Emphasize that you value your business relationship and will always be available to him as an independent Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Next, give examples of how well this works with your other attorney-clients. Finally, emphasize the speed of electronic communication and your availability for personal meetings. Since you are already successful as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you have very little to lose and the attorney-client has everything to gain. Go for it!

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share your tips for saying no to attorney-clients.

I’ll be the first to admit it feels good to be right. There’s a comfort, if not outright confidence, in that moral certitude that comes from knowing you are correct in a situation. Recently a vendor and I disagreed over a matter that was objectively verifiable and I knew I was right. It took some effort on my part, but he finally agreed with me.

But when you’re in a relationship, whether it’s business or personal, being right rarely ends with being right. That’s because no one likes to feel that they’re wrong. When you’re right, there’s a right way and a wrong way to be right and a right way to respond when another person has to admit you’re the one who’s right. For example, while it may feel satisfying, annihilating the person or crushing him with the correctness of your position (as I admit I wanted to do in the above situation) is just not an option. And while it can be tough, a certain grace goes a long way if you want to get along with that person in the future.

The next time you’re right in your legal nurse consulting business, take a moment to consider the impact of how you communicate that fact to your attorney-client, subcontractor or MD expert. I’m not suggesting you back down, just that you tone it down and maintain a composed, confident demeanor. Your relationships are much more important than feeling good about being right – though you can still be right at the same time.

Success Is Inside!

As we move into the holiday season, our role as CEO becomes even more pronounced. Sure we’re CEOs of our Certified Legal Nurse Consulting businesses, but you might be the “Chief Everything Officer” of your family as well, in charge of your business and housekeeping, childcare, homework, shopping, meal-planning, cooking, carpool and finance, to name just a few departments.

So how do you juggle your career and family without going insane, and still enjoy the holiday season? That’s the million-dollar question and here’s my million-dollar answer: stop being the Chief Everything Officer and learn to say no. That might mean saying no to the people you love the most and no to doing all the laundry, all the housework and all the errands. Learning to say this one word, the most powerful word in the dictionary, can have a revolutionary effect not only on enjoying the holidays but also on your CLNC^® business.

For example when Edie, who was very career driven, got married, her husband said “I don’t do laundry.” She smiled and said, “That’s okay, neither do I.” In her 14 years of marriage, she has raised their son, gone back to college and risen to an executive position.

It’s okay for your spouse and kids to do some of the housework. It’s not going to kill them, but it is going to kill you if you keep doing it all. Get your family behind you and your career goals in the same way that you’re behind each of them. That’s the best way to handle your legal nurse consulting business, the holidays and the day-to-day we call life.

And while you’re at it, stop saying yes by default. Too many nurses fall into the traps of “if I don’t do it, it won’t get done” or “it’s faster to do it than explain it.” When you agree to say yes to an additional chore or project, think about what you’re saying no to as a result.

You’ll have a much happier life, holiday season and productive CLNC^® business when you learn to say no, delegate some of those myriad responsibilities and initiate on-the-job training programs for your spouse and children. As long as you’re the CEO, you may as well put those skills to use!

Success Is Inside!

Recently I was negotiating a deal with a company I’ve been doing business with for a long time. It became obvious that we had reached an impasse and we each settled on our “final” offers. A note about my negotiating philosophy: while I consider myself a strong negotiator, I’m not one to bluff very often in a business setting. I save my bluffing for poker games with my twin brother Vince (don’t tell him that’s how I won that last jackpot from him, LOL). I pride myself in creating and maintaining strong business relationships and always coming from a place of fairness and integrity in my dealings with other people – that’s why many of my vendor and business relationships are long-standing.

In this situation though, I got the impression that the other party was bluffing and was holding back more than they had put on the table. It wasn’t a “put up so you don’t have so much” moment; it was a “you can do better than you’re telling me” moment.

So in my own words, I let the other party know that I was willing to walk away from the deal if they didn’t step up to the bar. I made my case and offer and signed off from the negotiation. The other party had never experienced that from me before, so they knew I was serious. They waited, but I waited longer; they finally came back with an offer that was fair to both of us.

That reminded me of one of the most pivotal days in my legal nurse consulting business – the day I realized that if one attorney wasn’t willing to play according to my terms (terms that were favorable not to just one of us, but to both of us), there were more than a million others who might. As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you’ve got to learn when to walk away from a deal because it isn’t meeting the needs or goals you’ve set for your CLNC^® business.

When that moment arrives, pull out your iPod^®, crank up Kenny Roger’s song “The Gambler,” sing along with the words, “you got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away and know when to run” and give yourself the courage to make the decision that’s best for you.

Success Is Inside!

Successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know that being nice always pays off with your attorney-clients, subcontractors, vendors and employees. Being nice in no way implies that you are weak or have to kowtow to someone else’s whims, nor does it mean you’re always agreeable or a pushover. Being nice can mean that you have the ability to deliver an unpleasant message or opposing viewpoint while coming from a place of professionalism rather than emotion or antagonism.

In your CLNC^® business, whether you’re working with attorney-clients or subcontractors, it helps to have a consciousness about the way you express your dissatisfaction, dissenting opinion or tough message. Your behavior becomes part of that message and to be in control of your message, you have to be in control of yourself. When you’re not, people don’t hear the message and will often discount it because of the way they’ve perceived the delivery or even worse the messenger, no matter how you intended it.

Effective communicators know how to balance the message and the delivery. They don’t deliver bad news with a smile but with equanimity. They don’t disregard the feelings of others or put too much into how others feel about them. Instead they care more about the message itself and don’t load it with unnecessary baggage. Sometimes this means being nice, but more often it means being effective. You know when you’ve achieved the perfect balance when you “nicely” tell someone off and they thank you for it.

Take a moment to reflect on how you deliver your messages. Do you prefer to be “nice” and always relatable, rendering yourself and the people around you ineffective by failing to deliver dissenting viewpoints or tough messages when needed? If yes, you might need to redefine nice.

Do your messages get dismissed by others because they are laden with inappropriate emotions? If yes, learn how to detach from your own junk and the emotional responses of others.

Do you balance the art of nice and effective? If yes, congratulate yourself on achieving that balance but don’t strain your shoulder patting yourself on the back quite yet. Each new day will offer you a plethora of opportunities to choose between “nice” or “effective.” Be sure you choose wisely and consistently.

Success Is Inside!

I just left New York City after my appearance on FOX & Friends. Alisyn Camerota, who interviewed me about my book Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman, is a pro. It was such an honor to interview with a strong woman who’s interviewed newsmakers like President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The entire crew was professional and fun. Everything went so smoothly it would be hard to imagine a better experience.

Contrast my fun day at Fox studio with an earlier experience at a different, unnamed, TV network. Start by imagining yourself in a hot TV studio waiting for an interview. Your host is in New York City and you’re in your hometown (in my case Houston), sitting in an uncomfortable swivel chair wearing an earpiece that allows you to hear some of the chaos going on behind the scenes. In front of you are the camera, an ultra-bright spotlight shining into your eyes and some tech-types running around trying to pull everything together and make it all work. This goes on for 45-50 minutes while you sit there with your best interview face on, trying not to act bored or to allow the people in the studio back in the Big Apple see you fidget.

Unlike my spectacular experience at Fox, everything that could have gone wrong that morning did – connections failed, the lighting was off and cameras malfunctioned. I was sitting in front of the unforgiving eye of the camera the whole time, not knowing who was watching me because while they could see me, I could not see them. I was trying to smile, hold my bladder (nursing experience came in handy) and resist the temptation to pull out my iPhone^® and check email.

Finally, the voices in my ear became serious; someone shouted “Live” and we were rolling for another interview related to Wicked Success. Minutes later we were done and the interview was in the can. As we were leaving, Tom remarked that he was surprised that I sat there so long without visibly fidgeting. He’s used to seeing me move a lot.

It wasn’t easy nor was it my idea of a fun way to spend 45 minutes. So, I just sat there quietly when I preferred to fidget and struggled to practice the interview in my mind instead of focusing on all the things that aren’t getting done while I sit and smile.

The principles that I apply in a TV studio apply to you as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant when you go into an attorney’s office (whether for an interview or presentation). Appointments will be delayed, important phone calls will come up for the attorney and sometimes you can sit there for what seems at least two eternities before the assistant finally summons you into the attorney’s office. In the meantime, under the watchful eye of the receptionist you can work yourself into an agitated state, squirm, check the time repeatedly and make faces at each passing minute, or sit quietly or start up a friendly conversation (they’re called the gatekeeper for good reason!). Either way, your behavior will be reported to the assistant and maybe even the attorney herself.

Remember, from the moment you walk into that law office, you’re already in the interview or presentation. It’s just not enough to show up on time; it’s how you show up as a CLNC^® consultant.

Success Is Inside!

All smart business owners use social media to promote their services or products and so should CLNC^® consultants. Here are some simple ways successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants are using social media in their CLNC^® businesses.

Talk to Your Friends – Let all of your friends know you are a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Ask each friend to connect you with an attorney she knows. Almost everyone knows an attorney, so if you have 250 friends, that’s 250 attorney-prospects waiting to hear about you and your CLNC^® services.

“In this day and age, one would be foolish not to utilize the marketing power of social media to help get the word out that you’re a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Through social media I have been very fortunate to have numerous friends and family members actually network for me. Their efforts have led to new attorney-clients and successful business relationships. New cases coming my way with no effort on my part – you can’t beat that!”

Julie Somen-Becker, RN, BSN, CLNC

Talk to Your CLNC^® Colleagues – Invite your CLNC^® subcontractors and colleagues to be your friend. Social media’s messaging tools are a convenient way to refer cases to expand each other’s business. Direct messaging is also convenient for referring experts and CLNC^® consultants.

“My social media contacts are primarily Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. I only spend 6-7 minutes a day on social media, but I have increased my pool of CLNC^® subcontractors with that minimal time investment. It’s well worth the time that you invest if you spend it wisely.”

Lawrence Frace, RN, CLNC

“I use social media to network with Certified Legal Nurse Consultants about potential testifying experts and new ideas for marketing campaigns. I’ve received some great ideas from other CLNC^® consultants and have reciprocated with some of my favorite rain-making tips. Keep your posts professional and assume everything that you write is public.

Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC

Talk to Attorneys and Share Information – You might not want to “friend” your attorney-clients in order to avoid blending your personal and professional life. However, the question really doesn’t have to be “Do I friend or not?” Just create a business page for those professional relationships. That way you can keep your “friend” profile private and your “professional” page public. Your professional page can be a place to post useful links, share information, foster a sense of community and maintain your presence as a valuable resource.

“One attorney was asking a question about an OB case. I used this opportunity to educate him about the issues in his case, and by doing this I gained his trust. About a month later when I sent him a marketing packet and followed up with a phone call, he offered me that exact same OB case to review.”

Dorene Goldstein, RNC, CLNC

Facebook and Google Plus have made it easier than ever to get involved in social media. It’s a new world full of opportunities to expand your legal nurse consulting business. Used practically, professionally and purposefully, it can help expand your pool of CLNC^® subcontractors and experts, keep you in touch with your network of CLNC^® colleagues and attorney-clients and help you find new markets and attorney-prospects for your CLNC^® services.

Success Is Inside!

A recent analysis of the stream of Twitter “tweets” reveals that people are happy in the morning, less happy throughout the day while they’re at work and then happier again after work when back at home. That’s a pretty revealing study which suggests that most people are compartmentalizing their life into a work life and a personal life. But the reality is, we don’t have two-compartment lives. We only have one life. Most of us spend more time at work than with our families. You can’t turn happiness off at work and go home and turn it on and expect to have a passionate, purpose-filled life.

I’m not naive. None of us can expect to feel happy all day, every day. In fact if someone claims they are, I’d bet that they’re either medicated or need to be. Likewise, we can’t put our happiness on hold 12 hours a day when at work and then crank it up when we get home.

I faced the ramifications of such a life on my mind, body and soul 29 years ago when I woke up to a dead-end job at the hospital. Plus, I was going to have to work overtime for the rest of my life just to pay the mortgage on my 1,100 square-foot condo. And I was way too mouthy and opinionated for a hospital institution.

I seized my dissatisfaction and started my own business as a legal nurse consultant. Owning my dissatisfaction and, most importantly, doing something about it changed my entire life.

Is it time to check in and assess if you’re one of those Twitter statistics? If so, what do you plan do about it?

Success Is Inside!

You’ve QA’d your legal nurse consulting business, but have you QR’d it? QR, or quick response, codes are all the rage in the advertising world. These are the small images or blocks of computer code you see in magazine ads, boarding passes and newspapers. When you see a QR code, you simply need to focus your smartphone’s camera on it (and have the right app) and it will take you to a webpage selected by the QR code’s author.

My mind is spinning with the possibilities for CLNC^® consultants! Nothing indicates to your attorney-prospects that you are a high-tech, up-to-date Certified Legal Nurse Consultant more than a QR code on your ads in legal journals, the back of your business card and each of your promotional pieces. Different QR codes can direct to different pages on your website. For example, QR codes can link to your website’s homepage, CV, list of CLNC^® services or promotional video.

QR codes are free, easy to create and highly customizable. Do a quick online search for free online QR code creator to find one you like. Type in your information and before you know it, you’ll have a QR code you can save and insert into your promotional materials. Remember to optimize the page you’re pointing to for mobile devices.

I love technology. Don’t you?

Success Is Inside!