Since our Conference theme is Take the Stage for Legendary CLNC^® Success, here are some tips that will help you discover the award-winning secrets to achieve legendary CLNC^® stardom.

1. Stay connected with me and your CLNC^® peers on Facebook throughout the NACLNC^® Conference. Share the sessions you’re loving, the restaurant you just discovered, a new idea for your CLNC^® business, etc.
2. Kick off Day 1 with my Opening Session, Take the Stage for Legendary CLNC^® Success followed by the NACLNC^® Top 10 with Tom Ziemba.
3. Turn off your cell phone, pager, chiming watch and any other stress-producer you’ve brought with you. This is not only a courtesy to your fellow CLNC^® peers, but also a courtesy to yourself, honoring all you’ve invested to be here. (No texting either.)
4. Limit checking your email, voicemail, text messages or calling home to just once a day. But, do visit me on Facebook throughout the day to network with your CLNC^® conference peers.
5. Be open to all the new recommendations so you can achieve legendary CLNC^® success with your legal nurse consulting business.
6. Meet and get to know two new CLNC^® consultants at each break and reception. Eat lunch and dinner each day with three CLNC^® consultants you don’t know. Sell your expertise to each other. You are each other’s best resources for future CLNC^® subcontractors and experts.
7. Practice positive masterminding. Connect with two other CLNC^® consultants and mastermind together at the end of the day. Each of you will process and apply information differently. Focus only on positive ideas for your CLNC^® business. By coming together, you’ll take home new strategies you wouldn’t think of alone.
8. Don’t miss a session. Go in positively knowing that a single idea can increase your profitability 1%, 5%, even 10% and more.
9. At each session, write down at least one action step you will take to grow your CLNC^® business.
10. Commit to learn one thing from each speaker. While every presentation is packed with useful information for you, the key is being in the right mindset to grab the ideas when they come your way. I once attended a seminar where only 5% of the information was interesting and fresh. But the ideas I got from that 5% added to the growth of my company by as much as 10%. Because I was committed to learning, my mind was ready when the “good stuff” was presented.
11. Take the information presented and create your own new ideas. My goal when I sit in on a session is to come up with ideas that are even better than any I get from the speaker. This mindset will help you achieve a unique CLNC^® business – not a look-alike imitation of someone else’s.
12. Take it easy. If you allow yourself to get frustrated about anything – an airport delay or the person sitting next to you – you’re the only one who will suffer. Stay loose. If you aren’t happy with the person sitting next to you, sit next to someone else in the next session or get up and move. Stay upbeat and attract positive energy.
13. Exercise daily – even for only 20 minutes. Take a brisk walk through the hotel (the Gaylord is like a small city) and renew yourself. Visualize your CLNC^® experience as you indulge in a massage or relax in a hot tub.
14. Treat yourself to the NACLNC^® river dinner cruise, Monday March 15 on the General Jackson to network in a new way.
15. Remember to put on your comfortable CLNC^®Wear so everyone in Nashville will know you are a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant.

Check back on March 17, 2010, when you can read my tips in How to Top the Charts After the 2010 NACLNC^® Conference.

Success Is Inside!

The first experience was the second time I had been a part of a trial team. As a CLNC^® consultant, I worked the file inside and out, read thousands of pages of medical records, hundreds of pages of deposition transcripts and worked with the testifying experts in preparation for their trial testimony. Finally, we were in trial. I sat in the first row of the audience and, as my attorney-client instructed, passed notes to the bailiff who in turn gave them to my attorney-client. I watched plaintiff counsel put on their case. Finally, the plaintiff’s RN testifying expert was on the stand. Direct examination completed and cross examination had begun. I began to fervently write potential questions on my note pad and passed them along. Then the judge called for a break.

My attorney-client motioned for me to approach the defense table. He said, “Suzanne, take me through this line of questioning.” Point by point; I lead him through what I thought was a convincing defense clinical argument. Our goal was to “poke holes” in the plaintiff expert’s opinion. My attorney-client was so impressed with my argument, he turned to me and said, “Suzanne, you should be an attorney!” I was flattered and gasped all at the same time! I never thought I could use my nursing expertise to help a legal team! I have no desire to become an attorney, but I am sure thankful and excited to be a successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultant!

My second outstanding experience was as a testifying expert. I was asked to render my opinion regarding the nursing standard of care in a nursing home elder abuse case. The case surrounded a fall, fracture, skin tears and bruises. Many hours went into trial preparation. My opinions were laced into my defense-client’s opening presentation.

Finally, it was my turn to testify. The adrenaline was racing through my veins. Boy, was I pumped! Direct examination went well. Now it was plaintiff’s turn. Cross-examination proceeded fairly well. Counsel repeated questions previously asked and tried to change them in an attempt to trip me up. It wasn’t working. I could see he was becoming frustrated. The volume of his voice began to rise. All the while, I sat relaxed (so I’m told) in the witness chair.

Then came the line of questioning surrounding a dog bite that was sustained during routine pet visits. The resident had pet the dog, as he had so many times before, but this time the dog nipped him. The “bite” healed uneventfully. Because the attorney couldn’t rattle my cage, he blurted out the question, “What kind of dog was it, anyway?” I paused, but before an objection could be given, I responded, “That’s irrelevant.” The jury laughed, my attorney-client at the defense table smiled, and the plaintiff’s attorney was left speechless!

When I got the call that the jury had found for the defense, I was thrilled. My attorney-client was also thrilled with the verdict, and was especially thrilled with my testimony and appreciative of my input as a member of his trial team.

Suzanne E. Arragg, RN, BSN, CDONA/LTC, CLNC

In contrast, we have a friend who lives and dies by her BlackBerry^®. It’ll beep, rattle and roll and do everything it can to get her attention every time she gets a text, email or reminder. Talking with her in person (or on a landline) can be frustrating as she’s constantly pulling her BlackBerry out of her hip holster (which isn’t hip at all) to see each obviously very and absolutely important communication she’s just received. You can always tell when you’ve lost her attention (What?).

Even worse, she’s developed phantom rattle. When she’s not wearing her BlackBerry (which is rare) you’ll see her reflexively touch her hip because she’s felt a rattle that isn’t there. Anyone else want to confess to this? But even worse than even worse, she’s confessed to me that if she’s in line at the grocery, post office or OTB counter and there’s no email to read, she’ll play one of the games loaded on her device. Even though I consider her a social person, she won’t talk to people, instead preferring to play games or sometimes even re-read email that she’s already read.

As much as I love tech, there’s a time and a place for tech. Sometimes you just have to put down the phone and drive or walk or wait in line or talk. Do you remember the time before cell phones when people would actually engage in civil discourse while waiting in a line or standing in an elevator? Today people use tech to isolate themselves. Their smart phone becomes an excuse to ignore you. Sorry, but I’m too busy and important to say hello to you – I’ve got email to read.

You never know what opportunity you’re missing when you put your head down and play the 15th level of BrickBreaker instead of engaging in a little “Who do you know who…” or “I’m a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, what do you do?” Every person you meet is a potential legal nurse consulting lead to a new attorney-client or prospect opportunity. Even if they’re part of the 0.003% of Americans who don’t know an attorney (I just made up that statistic), they may simply brighten your day or become a new friend.

This week, make it a goal to talk to people and keep your BlackBerry or other smart phone holstered or in your purse while you’re in public spaces. If we all talked to each other a little more, we’d make the world a friendlier place (and safer to walk and drive around in). In the meantime, stop updating your Spacebook, MyFace and Twister accounts and actually tell a real person what you’re doing and what you do. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

About an hour into the movie I turned to Tom, and after yanking the popcorn away from him, whispered, “If this doesn’t get Best Picture I’ll be shocked.” I loved the movie.

Last night, I watched the Academy Awards and was indeed shocked when Hurt Locker won Best Picture. In all fairness I never saw Hurt Locker and will have to add it to my list. Until then my vote is still Avatar. Not only was it entertaining, Certified Legal Nurse Consultants can learn several lessons from director, James Cameron. The lessons all stem from an opinion I feel strongly about after growing my successful legal nurse consulting business for 28 years – the experts are often wrong and you shouldn’t always listen to them!

Think about it. Hollywood experts said audiences won’t go see an intelligent movie; that they only want gross-out, teen-style comedies or star-driven vehicles where the star walks through his role in his sleep. Cameron ignored them and penned a movie that required your full attention and one that put its leading characters into unrecognizable avatars.

The experts say the attention span of audiences cap out after 80-90 minutes and that audiences won’t sit for a movie that runs 162 minutes caption-to-credit. Cameron ignored that line of thinking and cut the movie he wanted audiences to see. Again, the experts were wrong to the tune of over $2.5 billion worldwide!

Experts also believed that audiences weren’t ready for full-length 3D movies other than horror, children’s or the occasional IMAX^® film. Instead of following that thinking, Cameron went out on a limb and filmed the movie in 3D applying it tastefully, without cheap shock effects. This has turned out to be one of the most popular methods to see Avatar.

Like I’ve always told CLNC^® consultants, you can’t always listen to the experts because they’re often wrong. Like James Cameron you have to make your own decisions and follow your own dreams. Like James Cameron, your CLNC^® business may not win a coveted Academy Award, but there’s nothing holding you back from trying, except the experts.

See you in the theaters!

Match the CPA’s Service to Your Needs

Your main focus should be to match the needs of your CLNC^® business with the services provided by the CPA. CPAs can:

1. Set up your books – A CPA can help you determine your chart of accounts, set up record-keeping guidelines and generally get you started. A CPA can also review your records and tax returns to be sure you’ve made no blatant mistakes.
2. Prepare all tax returns – These can include both Federal and state tax returns for personal, corporate,  payroll, sales tax and other business-related filings. While a CPA may review returns you have prepared, the CPA will not sign off on them unless he completed the return. A CPA can also help in the event of an audit by the IRS or any other taxing authority. You may also want to consider a payroll service to handle your payroll needs, including tax filings and records compliance.
3. Provide managerial advice – A CPA who is well informed about your legal nurse consulting business can often provide tax and cost saving suggestions as well as help you make informed decisions about your business based on your financial statements and tax returns. Tax laws and reporting requirements frequently change, and helping you stay abreast of these changes is an important role of the CPA.
4. Provide complete bookkeeping services – Some CPA firms have bookkeepers on staff who perform the record-keeping the CPA requires for your financial statements and tax returns. While this service is not free, you gain billable hours to devote to your CLNC^® business at a higher billing rate than what you would pay for the bookkeeping services.
5. Help with computer applications – A CPA may be able to guide you in choosing the appropriate accounting software package for your business. Easy-to-use, complete accounting software packages, such as Quicken, Quickbooks and Peachtree are available as are tax preparation software (TurboTax, Tax Cut).

Find the Right Professional

To begin your search for the right CPA, consider networking with other business owners, family members and friends. Other sources for referrals are local legal and professional associations. Each state has an association of CPAs that can give you names. The Internet can also be a source for names of CPAs in your state. One helpful website is aicpa.org which offers a list of State Boards of Accountancy that can be accessed online to research names and verify licensing.

When you have narrowed the field, interview each candidate. Verify the CPA’s license with the respective State Board of accountancy. Take previous tax returns and financial statements with you to give each candidate a chance to understand your business. Ask what their specialties are and if they have worked with consultants or other business owners previously. Request references and contact the references, asking how helpful and accessible the CPA has been for them. If at all possible, have the CPA come to your office. This can help the CPA appreciate where you are in your business and where you want to go in the future. Your focus should be on finding an individual who is compatible with you and knowledgeable about your CLNC^® business. Assess whether the candidates have answered your questions thoroughly and used terms you understand.

Here are some additional factors to consider when choosing a CPA:

• Size
  The size of the CPA firm is important. Large firms can be costly and less likely to give you personal attention. However, they will likely provide a wider range of services than a smaller firm. A sole practitioner can provide personal attention but may offer fewer services, have less time to devote to staying current and might become overwhelmed by a growing business. You may want to start with a sole practitioner and, when your needs outgrow his services, move on to a larger firm.

• Credentials
  Check the accountant’s credentials. An individual with the CPA designation has met state licensing requirements and passed a difficult two-day national exam. CPAs who belong to the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) are governed by a strict code of ethics and must complete extensive continuing education requirements. Inquire about association memberships and how active the CPA is in those organizations.

• Integrity
  Integrity and honesty are also a major consideration. Some CPAs stretch the meaning of the law. Be sure you are comfortable with the interpretation your CPA gives you. If you have any doubt about the advice the CPA gives you, get a second opinion.

Be sure to get the fee schedule in writing so you can budget to make the best use of the CPA’s time.

Don’t hesitate to replace your CPA if you find that your needs as a legal nurse consultant are not being met. When you consider the dollars you are losing by using an inefficient CPA, it will help you justify the time you will spend on a search for your new “financial partner.”

Success Is Inside!

Instead of joining the complaining party, use your precious time to solve your own problems or to enjoy your life as intended. Even 10 minutes given to a complainer (family, friend or colleague) is bound to sap your energy. Those are 10 precious minutes you could’ve been doing something for you and your legal nurse consulting business. Minutes you’ll never get back. Rather than waste them in a negative manner, do something fun for yourself. Take a relaxing mineral-salt bath, drink a glass of wine or go ahead – do both! You can also put those minutes into your CLNC^® business by working on a report or calling an attorney on your prospect list.

The next time you find yourself snared by a complainer, detach and interrupt the complaining. Before you give 10 precious minutes away to someone else’s soap opera, ask yourself if you’ll really be making a difference by listening or joining in. Or would those 10 minutes be better spent on you or something more positive?

For the next 30 days be a conscious observer of complainers in your life and conscientious of your own commitment to detach from them. When you do, your life and your legal nurse consulting business will soar.

Success Is Inside!

My customized Firefox^® browser will often warn me of bad or suspect sites while doing a Yahoo!^® search (yes, I’m a Yahooholian versus a Googallion).

For legal nurse consultants who’d like a little more advice on which sites are possibly good or bad, you may wish to consider downloading the WOT – Safe Browsing Tool from WOT Services. Web of Trust (WOT) relies on its member community to rate websites based on the individual user’s experience. You can find the FireFox add-on as a download here and the Internet Explorer^® (version 6.0 and higher) download here. If you’re a Safari or Opera user, there’s no add-on available but there is a cool bookmarklet you can get here. Drag the link to your bookmarks in Opera/Safari (then rename it something like “WOT”) and when you’re visiting a website, you can click the WOT bookmarklet and it will display the site’s rating in a pop-up. Clicking on the bookmarklet again will close the window.

This is a cool add-on. Once you’ve installed it, register for membership in the WOT community and you too can start rating websites and helping keep the web safe for surfing.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

The important word in USP is “unique.” What can you claim that another registered nurse cannot? The most common mistake I see is including a generic quality or characteristic that any legal nurse consultant can claim such as, “I’m organized and very analytical.” Who among us would say we’re not organized and analytical? If you want to stress your analytical skills, is there a specific experience that separates you from other RNs? Here’s an example:

“Five years of experience reviewing medical records as a risk manager in a variety of specialties plus my CLNC^® Certification qualifies me to quickly and cost-effectively review cases in any medical and nursing specialty. I can save you time and money by screening cases before you pay to send them to expensive medical experts.”

A second common mistake I see is legal nurse consultants stating expertise and credentials without a benefit statement such as, “I have 10 years of experience.” The attorney might not instantly understand all the benefits these 10 years of experience offer. Here’s an example of adding a benefit statement to your experience:

“I have 10 years of emergency experience. Having worked inside emergency departments, I can share details of how emergency services are provided that you will never find in an emergency medicine textbook. This will reduce the time you’ll have to spend with expensive medical experts.”

A third mistake I see is focusing on the CLNC^® services you provide such as screening cases and analyzing causation issues. At some stage you will want to emphasize CLNC^® services you provide, but they are not a USP. CLNC^® services are common to all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. Your USP can, however, qualify you to deliver a CLNC^® service in a very unique, more qualified or more specific way. Here’s an example:

“My five years of experience in cardiology qualifies me to identify plaintiffs who have a pre-existing risk for heart attack and stroke in the defense of your Vioxx^® cases.”

Put your USP to work for your CLNC^® business with your attorney-prospects and remember to keep it unique.

Success Is Inside!

One strategy to help you with this goal is to ditch perfectionism. As nurses, perfectionism is not only rewarded, it’s expected. You make a mistake and someone can die. I’m sure those kind of mistakes don’t go over well with your boss either (not to mention the patient). But do your internal documents for your legal nurse consulting business have to be so perfect? Misguided perfectionism can keep you from stepping out and going for the big things for your CLNC^® business or it can rob you of enjoying your business and your life.

I am surrounded by perfectionists (lots of Virgos) at Vickie Milazzo Institute and I often suffer from the perfectionism obsession myself. Ten drafts of a document is not uncommon. Over the years, we’ve had to acknowledge that perfectionism is important for the big things that count (like a report for your attorney-client) but can actually detract us from the big important things when we apply it to the small insignificant tasks that we all have to do. The advent of computers has made this problem worse than ever. In the old days of typewriters, it was difficult to revise and reprint a document and people were very careful about making revisions. Today, we can move a comma or a line of type and reprint it to our heart’s content without even questioning the gain.

Growing up in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong was an icon. I often think if he had been a perfectionist, we would never have heard him sing “What a Wonderful World.” The great Satchmo came close to perfection as a trumpet player, but his voice, his unique, gravelly voice was certainly untraditional – sometimes not hitting any recognizable notes, sometimes incomprehensible, but ALL THE TIME – his own unique expression of his interpretation of the music.  And it wouldn’t BE such a wonderful world without THAT song.

If you think about it, when you’re demanding perfection on the wrong stuff as a legal nurse consultant, you too miss notes, high and low. Then, instead of moving on, you’re sidelined by rejection or imperfection. Now, instead of looking at your attorney-prospect list, you’re looking in the refrigerator. And guess what? Unless you work in the morgue, there are no attorneys in the refrigerator!

Think back to the first attorney who said no to you. Is that so important today? Can you even remember that attorney’s name?

Ditch perfectionism! Lighten up when you pick up the phone for that next attorney call or write that next report. If you don’t get that perfect case, or your perfect attorney-client doesn’t give you those perfect glowing reviews, don’t give up… That’s nothing more than a perfect experience to learn from.

Only you can properly assess where it’s okay to ditch perfectionism in your CLNC^® business, but do make it a goal. When you ditch perfectionism, you free yourself to spend time on the important and BIG things that will propel your legal nurse consulting business to the next level and keep those attorney-clients coming your way.

Success Is Inside!

Happy Birthday Vick – with what’s in the works, I know 2010 will be your (our) best year ever! Thanx for sharing it with me (I’ve got one of your favorite bottles of wine to go with your favorite dessert tonight! Woo-hoo!).

Now that the important stuff is out of the way, let’s start techin’! Many, if not all of you, are automatically updating the Windows^® operating system using the “Automatic Updates” function (or you’ve bookmarked the Windows Update webpage) for your home and legal nurse consulting business computers. That’s great for Windows but we all have a lot of other programs on our systems – many of which need updating too.

Some of the biggest offenders are those cool programs from Adobe^® that we all love. You know which ones I mean – Flash^®, Shockwave^® and even Acrobat^® – all are security risks from time to time. How do you stay up to date on these? Well, Adobe is finally taking steps to update some of its programs automatically – read this article – but not until April 13! In the meantime, my CLNC^® amigos, you’ll need to visit Adobe’s Security Center to see the list of “buggy” programs and Adobe’s recommended steps for dealing with them. It may involve determining which version of each program you have and uninstalling it or it could be as simple as downloading the newest version. In any event, you should visit this page on a regular basis. You can also sign up for security alerts here so that Adobe can tell you when there’s a new patch, etc. available.

If, like many Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, you’re using the Firefox^® web browser as an alternative to Internet Explorer^® you’ll need to keep on top of updates too. Open up your Firefox browser, left click “Tools,” then left click “Options,” then click “Advanced” and finally click the “Updates” tab. Make sure the boxes next to “Firefox” and “Installed Add-ons” are checked and close those boxes being sure to save your changes. This way you’ll be automatically notified each time Mozilla updates Firefox or one of your add-ons is updated. You should also take a minute to visit Mozilla’s Plugin Check page to be sure all your Firefox plugins are up-to-date.

I know it’s a lot of work, but you need to keep on top of your updates. They’re not going to do it by themselves (yet).

Keep on techin’,

Tom