Vickie's Legal Nurse Consulting Blog

While visiting Taktsang Palphug Monastery in Bhutan (also known as “The Tiger’s Nest”) I had the opportunity to speak to a monk who introduced me to the Tibetan Buddhist term “bardo,” which without getting too deeply into it can be translated as “the between moment.”

Vickie & Tom at "The Tiger's Nest"

Bardo is that period where you’re not occupied or busy with your life or legal nurse consulting business. In fact, you’re not occupied with anything but just being. It’s when you’re stopped at a red light or sitting and waiting outside an attorney-client’s office or sipping a cup of healthy green tea before your day kicks in.

Life is full of busy moments, significant moments and bardo moments. I often joke that I’m always “blowing and going” but when I’m not, those “between” moments are often the ones I use to do my deepest thinking and my personal restoration.

The next time you’re experiencing a bardo moment, don’t be bored or restless, reaching for your smart phone. Just enjoy it. Dive deep into yourself or better yet, into nothingness.

Success Is Inside!

I’ve already given you a Tech Tip on how to use tabbed browsing to enhance your legal nurse consulting research. I’ve also Tech Tipped on how to recover your work in your web browser in the event that you accidentally close it out. Today’s tip works in Firefox^®, Chrome^® and wonder of wonders, in Internet Explorer^® 8. If you accidentally close a tab, before you shout Holy Tech Tip Tom! Simply hold down your Control button, your Shift button and hit the T (for Tom) key. Each time you give your computer the <Ctrl><Shift>T salute it’ll open up the last tab you closed in your web browser. If you’re a Safari^® user, you can only re-open the last tab you closed, but at least it’s a simpler salute <Ctrl>z (for Ziemba).

Okay my CLNC^® amigos, armed with these Tech Tips you’ll never lose a second’s work again!

Keep on Techin’,

Tom

At least once a day I hear someone say, “When I lose that 10 pounds I’ll be happy” or “When I get one more attorney-client for my legal nurse consulting business I’ll be happy” or “I’ll be really happy when my husband finally cleans out the garage.” Seeking happiness or anything else we desire outside of where we are now, or making our happiness dependent upon some extraordinary incident occurring, pins those expectations on the future.

The problem with that mindset is we don’t live in the future we live in the now, simple ordinary times filled with simple ordinary events. Sometimes extraordinary incidents (like being the CLNC^® consultant involved in a $20 million verdict) will happen, but those moments pass and their resulting happiness will pass too. It’s in this very moment that we must find our happiness, in our day to day living, such as interacting with a CLNC^® subcontractor or doing the research on a case.

Life isn’t a journey to happiness; it’s a journey in happiness. Some of the career benefits of becoming a CLNC^® consultant are being able to set your own hours and have more time with your family. It’s within those extra hours that you’ll find plenty of opportunities to experience the happiness you deserve: the sound of your children laughing, working really hard on a challenging case for your favorite attorney-client or simply prepping dinner.

Certainly extraordinary incidents will bring you joy, but on a daily basis you’re more likely to experience an ordinary one. Take a moment to enjoy them now. For the moment, this moment is all you’ve got.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share what you’re finding joy in right now.

I was in the gym working out with my trainer Jerome this morning, and after finishing my bench press, Jerome exclaimed “We did it!” That cracked me up and I joked “We? I’m the one moving that weight and hey, I don’t see you sweating.” He came right back at me with, “But I was right there with you, Vickie. I’ve got your back so you can concentrate on feeling strong.”

I like to think I’m your “Jerome.” Whether you’re just starting your legal nurse consulting business or simply trying to take your CLNC^® business to the next level, think of me as your trainer. While you’re concentrating on the work ahead, I’ll be right there with you. When you read my blog, stay connected on Facebook or receive my mentoring advice, remember the “we” in your efforts. Yes, I’m right there watching your back and if you hang with me, the CLNC^® mentors and your CLNC^® peers in the NACLNC^® Association I promise you’ll always feel stronger.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share what makes you feel stronger.

According to Bloomberg Business, the top selling iPad2^® app over the Christmas holidays wasn’t Angry Birds, it was an app named Quickoffice. What’s Quickoffice have to do with Certified Legal Nurse Consultants? Easy – with more and more of my CLNC^® amigos turning to the iPad as an auxiliary device, you need a way to view and edit your Microsoft^® Office documents and Quickoffice provides it.

Using Quickoffice, CLNC^® consultants and their attorney-clients can open and edit documents from Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It also has the ability to store, access and share documents in the “cloud” with a functioning tie to Dropbox^®. At $19.99 it’s not a cheap app, but then your business isn’t cheap and neither is the cost of missing a deadline because you couldn’t get back to your computer to correct a document.

When I get my iPad3^® this spring (hint, hint), Quickoffice will be one of the first apps I install and I recommend you do the same. It’s also available for phones but who really wants to edit documents on a phone? I sure don’t and I’ll bet you don’t either.

Keep on Techin’,

Tom

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.

I choose not to engage in stinking thinking. Thoughts like “I can’t do this…I can’t do that…I wish I could but I can’t” never enter my mind nor do I say them. Positive thoughts and spoken words attract positive happenings in my life and in my CLNC^® business, while negative thoughts and spoken words attract negative happenings in your life. I also choose not to listen to dream squashers – you know who they are – individuals who tell you that your ideas or goals are no good and that you are not going to succeed. “Dream squashers be gone” is my motto and it has served me well in my legal nurse consulting business.

I choose not to use nurses who are not CLNC^® consultants as subcontractors. A group that sings from the same page (same training) is strong and harmonious. As Certified Legal Nurse Consultants we were trained by the best (Vickie) so why look elsewhere for CLNC^® subcontractors?

I choose not to get in a rut in my CLNC^® business as I try new things along the way. Perhaps a new way of marketing my CLNC^® business is in order or overdue. Perhaps locating expert witnesses as part of my CLNC^® services to attorney-clients or revamping my newsletter makes sense at this time. Whatever it is, not becoming stagnant is important to me and my business. Other business owners might not look at things differently or take the time to step back and reflect on where they want to take their businesses, but not me. Even if you have setbacks along the way remember, Thomas Edison tried 10,000 ways to make his light bulb light before he hit the jackpot. When he was asked how it felt to fail 10,000 times, Edison replied that he did not fail 10,000 times, but rather found 10,000 ways in which his light bulb would not light. My vote is for the Edison way of looking at things. How do you go about looking at things in your life and in your CLNC^® business?

Guest Blogger Profile

Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC is an independent CLNC^® consultant with more than 30 years of nursing experience. He is the founder of Spectrum Medical-Legal Consulting in central New Jersey and specializes in medical malpractice cases.
 

As Certified Legal Nurse Consultants travel the information superhighway researching cases, you’ll run across many billboards, banners and advertisements. What you don’t see are the insidious ways that your movements are tracked by various parties, honest and nefarious. Flash cookies and browser cookies are one thing, but there’s another “invisible web” made up of tracking beacons, web bugs and rogue pixels hidden in web pages by website publishers, advertising networks and behavioral data providers that track your activities. Is there anything wrong with being tracked? Not really – after all, if you’re honest you have nothing to hide – but do you really want those tracking bugs slowing down your browsing experience? Time is money to legal nurse consultants and seconds add up over a busy work-week.

A free add-on for just about every web browser called Ghostery provides you with information about who is tracking you on any website and gives you the option to block or allow that tracker.

I’ve found it handy and I use it to block trackers at almost every website I visit. A caveat, my CLNC^® amigos, is that some websites will need components of the blocked functions to display properly. Luckily Ghostery makes it easy to allow or block. It displays a simple “ghost” in the top right of your browser showing associated trackers for each webpage you visit. They’re all blocked by default, but you can click each one to learn more about them, what they do and whether to allow or keep blocking. Some you must allow to make a particular website work for you. Here’s a screen shot:

You can read more about Ghostery and the “invisible web” at the Ghostery website.

I heartily recommend it to all tech-savvy Certified Legal Nurse Consultants.

Keep on Techin’,

Tom

Ownership is a funny thing. We all like to own things: a house, a car, an iPad2^®, a legal nurse consulting business or simply a garden. Then we learn that there’s some responsibility that comes with that ownership. Stand up and look out the window. You probably don’t have to look far down your street to notice that some people are better homeowners than others.

There are some things we’ll probably never own (like that private jet I want) but one thing we all own equally is time. That’s right, we all get the same 24 hours every day and the only difference between us is how we regard our time and what we do with it. Time is one of our greatest possessions.

And just as I care about my home, I care about my time and, more importantly, care for my time. How about you? Maybe it’s time to step back and objectively observe yourself for a day or even a week. Are you a good steward of your time or do you squander it away?

For the record, I love to play as much as I love to work. I started a business to have a life, not to give up my life, and fortunately my New Orleans upbringing helps me to remember to do just that – to play on a regular basis.

Whether it’s work or play, it’s your time and what you do with it is your choice. I’m just sayin’…

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share the good and bad things you do with your time.

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.