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.
 

Video conference facilities have long been used to allow witnesses to offer testimony in different types of court cases; however, use of this technology can be costly. We’re now seeing the first instances of witnesses testifying in court via Skype^®. In a Georgia criminal case, a defense witness was allowed to testify via Skype over objections from the prosecution, and in a Pennsylvania child custody case, the deported parents of two small children were allowed to testify from Mexico via Skype.

I’m sure we’ll continue to see more courtroom use of low-cost technologies such as Skype in the future. But courtrooms aside, are you using Skype in your Certified Legal Nurse Consulting business? We use Skype here at Vickie Milazzo Institute to connect with subcontractors and CLNC^® Mentors, hold meetings and cut down on long distance conference call costs.

It’s time you added Skype to your legal nurse consulting business. It’s simple to use. Once you download the Skype program, install your webcam/microphone, establish a broadband Internet connection and you’re ready to go. You can conference with attorneys on a case, discuss a case with your CLNC^® subcontractors and stay in touch with the Certified Legal Nurse Consultants in your alliance just to name a few.

Smart Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know to incorporate new technology into their legal nurse consulting businesses. It’s time to count yourself in!

Success Is Inside!

Vickie,

I am learning how to breathe again. You will never believe what happened. I called an attorney’s office last week to get an appointment. I spoke with a receptionist who accidently sent the attorney-prospect a note saying I needed a consult for a medical malpractice case. He called me and left a message giving me his direct number. So when I heard his message I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I returned his call, got him on the phone and explained that I was a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant and explained the CLNC^® services I could offer. His firm had just lost their legal nurse consultant. He asked me to come and make a presentation. So I am going to knock this out of the park.

After I hung up the phone the mind-numbing fear set in. I requested mentoring and the CLNC^® mentor at Vickie Milazzo Institute was incredible. There are 20 attorneys in this firm and not all practice medical malpractice or personal injury. I also wonder if all 20 will be in the meeting. In preparation for my CLNC^® presentation, I am practicing my answers to the questions on the NACLNC^® Association membership section of the LegalNurse.com website, and I think I am ready.

Vickie, do you think I should start now to call on other Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who might be willing to subcontract? I want to share my blessing if any of the cases are outside my area of expertise.

Sandra M., RN, CLNC

Hi Sandi,

Congratulations on your awesome news! Be prepared for 20 attorneys, but do not express disappointment if only one or two show. My best law firm started with one attorney and one case. Once he saw what I could do for him he recommended me to the other attorneys in his firm. 

For the attorneys who attend, be prepared to focus on the types of cases they manage. In other words, keep the presentation focused on them and their needs. You can follow up with the other attorneys in the firm at a later date, but for now it is imperative that you are relevant to the ones present.

Following your presentation and discussion with these attorney-prospects, you will know whether you need to call on another CLNC^® subcontractor and also the credentials they require for specific cases. I invite you to post a call for CLNC^® subcontractors on my Facebook page. And of course you can search for subcontractors in the NACLNC^® Directory by specialty and location. I do recommend subcontracting outside of your geographical area to avoid future competition issues. Be sure to keep me posted and I look forward to reading your CLNC^® Success Story soon. 

Success Is Inside!

For 28 years I’ve been reading business books, print publications and business information I find on the Internet. Over the years I have seen many management theories that have obviously been written by university professors or solo consultants who have never managed a single day in their lives. It’s like getting relationship advice from someone who’s not in one.

I don’t profess to be a management expert. Managing others is probably the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. Believe it or not, managing attorney-clients and annual NACLNC^® Conferences with 1,000+ people and celebrity speakers are a piece of cake compared to managing my staff of 22.

I never expected to find myself involved in management. In fact, when I worked in the hospital as an RN, management was not one of my ambitions. What I’ve learned from my experiences is that managing a business is like being in a giant laboratory. Sometimes your experiments work, sometimes they catch fire and sometimes they blow up in your face. Anyone in management will tell you that we are all constantly discovering, learning, screwing up and responding. There’s no nursing care plan that applies to management. You get the picture. Ask any manager what they think of the comic strip Dilbert^® and they’ll tell you that yes, it’s funny and that their boss’s version of “Bossbert” is even funnier.

While I don’t know everything there is to know about management theory, here’s what I do know. I’ve got 5 executive managers and every one of them is different. Their differences make for a stronger company, but also demand that I be different in the way that I manage. I am called all day, every day to flex my agility muscles and interface differently with each one. Some of my executive managers perform at their best when I am totally hands-off. Some perform best when I am very hands-on and at least one performs best when I’m somewhere in the middle (one hand on, one hand off).

If I tried to manage each one the same way, the outcome would be disastrous. This is why I struggle with many of the management theories that are tossed out there and treated like gospel truths. The reality is, you have to manage on the fly and sometimes that involves mashing up any number of different theories to obtain a coherent response.

As a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, you may not automatically think of yourself as a manager, but you are. You manage your CLNC^® subcontractors. Flex your agility muscles and seek out CLNC^® subcontractors who can bring different legal nurse consulting talents to your CLNC^® business. One of my favorite CLNC^® subcontractors cannot write to save her soul, but her clinical insights more than make for up her poor writing skills. She can see and grasp the most difficult issues with ease. I use her differently than I do a CLNC^® subcontractor who is an awesome writer. Both are important assets to my legal nurse consulting business.

Focus and capitalize on the strengths of each of your CLNC^® subcontractors and you will have a stronger, more diverse and more successful CLNC^® business.

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share how your management style makes a positive influence for your CLNC^® business.

Everyone knows that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant knows at least one CLNC^® consultant, if not more. If you’ve attended one of our CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminars, you’ve made lifelong CLNC^® friends. When you attend the NACLNC^® Annual Conference, you reconnect with CLNC^® consultants from all over the country. But all too often you only do it for those short periods of time. Not everyone capitalizes on their connections to make a strong chain or develop a mini-network.

In this information/communication-driven world of Facebook^®, Twitter^®, Skype^® and the Internet, the only thing holding you back is the lack of a plan. Given the myriad ways we can communicate these days there is nothing, and I mean nothing, stopping any Certified Legal Nurse Consultant from setting up their own CLNC^® Connection Chain (or “CCC” for short).

Set up your CCC in 5 easy steps:

1. Use Darwinian Selection. From your certified, but not certifiable, colleagues pick 5-8 other CLNC^® consultants you respect, who have different specialties than your own and who are in different parts of the country. This is Link 1 in your CCC.
2. Facebook’em Danno. Next, set up your own private group on Facebook and send an invite to each of the Certified Legal Nurse Consultants you’ve identified and ask them to join your group. You now have the second link in your CCC, a place where you and the CLNC^® members of your group can communicate freely and network with each other that doesn’t require any special skill. Remember to set your privacy settings to keep others from seeing your group’s discussions. CCC Link 2 is complete.
3. Get Yourself a Glam-Cam. Your next step is to go out and spend less than $60 and buy a USB web cam with embedded microphone for your computer (unless you’re lucky enough to have an Apple^® laptop or iMac with one built in). Install the camera. (Tom installed mine and claims it’s so simple even a caveman can do it.) Then sign up for the free version of Skype. This will allow you to have weekly video conferences in pairs or in groups with your CCC members. It’s much more fun than telephone conferences and much more rewarding in terms of retying the connections with the other CCCers. You can also use this to check in with your hi-tech attorney-clients. Link 3 checked off.
4. Tweet Like a Tweety-Bird. Join Twitter but be sure to protect your “tweets.” Protecting your tweets allows only those Twitter members you specifically approve to see your tweets. You can still follow Ashton Kutcher, but your tweets will only be seen by those you approve to view them. Use the initiation function of Twitter to send email invitations to your list of CLNC^® colleagues. If you have a texting plan for your smart phone, turn on the mobile tweets function of Twitter and select only those people in your group to update you via cell phone. You can read the rest of the twitterers using Tweetdeck or on Twitter. This way you’ll get texts of important updates from your CCC. Use Twitter to schedule your Skype calls, update your CCC on new attorney-clients or just to tell them what you’re doing. Link 4 in place.
5. Meet Up to Keep Up. When you attend the NACLNC^® Annual Conference, plan on flying in at least two days early to brainstorm with your CCC members. You’ll want to meet before the conference to get your face-to-face time in with your CCC members. Focus on learning from your group and grab new ideas for your legal nurse consulting business so you can rock back and enjoy the conference. Link 5 done and your CLNC^® Connection Chain is ready to pay off big!

Now put your CLNC^® Connection Chain to use. Set accountable and measurable objectives, and share them with your CLNC^® chain members. When you complete an objective, send out a tweet. Schedule at least two Skype calls a month so that everyone can update each other on the steps they’ve taken towards their accountable objectives. Research shows that being accountable to others for the action steps in your strategic plan help you implement them. Celebrate each others’ successes and brainstorm over what went well and what didn’t. This is your private brain trust, exclusive board of directors and personal planning committee – make use of them!

A CLNC^® Connection Chain is a great way to make sure your legal nurse consulting business succeeds. Here’s my challenge to Certified Legal Nurse Consultants – set up your own CCC and put it to the test for 60 days. I’ll be waiting to hear from you when you share with all of us how your CCC has helped your legal nurse consulting business.

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!

Hi Vickie, I just had to tell you the great news. I just finished my taxes and I am happy, no make that thrilled, no make that “over the moon with joy” to tell you that I earned more than $100,000.00. I went ahead and incorporated and named my CLNC^® business when the work started coming in faster than I could keep up. I just keep working hard trying to keep up with all of the work and make sure that I still put out top-quality work product. I was so happy when one of my attorney-clients forwarded my information to another law firm. I did a case for them and they were so happy with the “excellent CLNC^® work product” that I provided that they immediately forwarded another case to me.

I have been keeping so busy and I absolutely love being able to work for myself. I still have the law firm that I first started working for, and I had originally worked for the pharmaceutical attorneys, but from there I have also gotten cases from the medical-malpractice attorneys, nursing home negligence and more. I am keeping so busy that I am going to have to start hiring CLNC^® subcontractors. Luckily I met this incredible nurse and I convinced her to go through your CLNC^® Certification Program, which she just recently completed. Now that she is a CLNC^® consultant, I am ready to ask her to subcontract with me on my huge case load.

I now have cases going to trial. I am working with three attorney-clients that are in the first round of trials and two attorney-clients in the second group of trials. These cases all need detailed chronological summaries – something that I have been providing to these law firms for deposition preps.

Anyway, I just thought I would let you know how happy I am that I became a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. I love the way that I can combine my love and knowledge of nursing with my love of law. Thank you, Vickie, a hundred times over for helping me become a successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. You rock!

I hope my positive experiences will help other Certified Legal Nurse Consultants go for that BIG success. I feel honored to share my CLNC^® successes.

There I was nearly nine years ago, suffering from what I now refer to as “professional bradycardia.” I signed up for Vickie Milazzo Institute’s CLNC^® Certification Seminar and had my breath taken away! That 6-day seminar in 2000 was about to change my life forever and ever. However, at the time I only knew it was The Best program I had ever attended as a nurse, bar none!

It would be one and a half years later that I would have to wait for another positive breathless moment. It came after my first attorney-client gave me my first three cases, one right after the other, and then stated to me after paying his third retainer, “Larry, I just want to let you know that that you are not charging enough for these reports.” That was the icing on the cake. It made me realize that I could do this type of work and do it well, but thinking at the same time…well duh…I was trained by The Best! Based on that attorney’s advice and knowing that I was trained by the best, I substantially increased my hourly fee, never looked back and now never blink, shudder or stutter when I quote my fee to attorneys.

I was so excited that I picked up the phone and called Vickie Milazzo Institute in Houston. I asked if I could thank Vickie in person at the next CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminar in Philadelphia (my CLNC^® training ground). The answer came back, “yes,” and I found myself driving to Philadelphia in September 2002. I gave my little thank-you story with a microphone in front of me and I found myself breathless again, both from the fright of public speaking and from the reaction I received from the 300 nurses in attendance. I remember pinching myself and smiling from ear to ear on my drive home that day from Philadelphia.

I once again became breathless in March 2003 as I received the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants CLNC^® Success Story Award at the annual NACLNC^® Conference. Imagine, this old-as-dirt nurse, with average nursing skills, up on that huge stage with Vickie Milazzo in Orlando, Florida receiving such an award! It DID take my breath away and It DID FEEL GOOD!

One final breathless moment I would like to share, came very recently as I expanded my CLNC^® business to include nine subcontractors, all of whom are Certified Legal Nurse Consultants! I refer to my initiative as Peas in a Pod with the POD being my company who will act as the Point Of Distribution for casework to the Peas who are the CLNC^® subcontractors. We have bi-weekly group phone conferences and also stay connected by Pea Pod Ponderings, a weekly email sent by Larry Pea to the other Peas. All the Peas, each with their specific area of nursing expertise, makes the POD strong and unique, however what takes my breath away is the fact all the Peas are very, very special to me and as a POD, we are able to offer my attorney-clients over 225 years of nursing experience, guiding them as we journey through the medical records! Another breathtaking moment indeed will also be when the Peas collectively meet at the next NACLNC^® Conference!

Thank you Vickie for making me one SOB (Short Of Breath) Certified Legal Nurse Consultant!

Lawrence H. Frace, RN, CLNC

Many of you know I like to start each day with a cup of healthy green tea. I especially like to enjoy that first healthy cup of green tea while comfortably ensconced in the recliner in my bedroom, drinking tea and looking out to the silhouettes of the giant timber bamboo that surrounds our home reaching heights of easily 60 ft.

During the week I’m up at 4:00am and I love that the bamboo is one of the first things to greet me (second to Tom of course) as I sip my tea and before I’m off to the gym. I love to watch the gentle ballet of the bamboo as it sways in the wind. Even the slightest breeze will set it moving gracefully, dancing in the dawn light. A strong wind makes it look and sound like giant wind chimes and I love hearing the clacking of the stalks through the stillness.

This morning, I watched the swaying stalks and I started thinking about how much Certified Legal Nurse Consultants can learn from bamboo. Bamboo is unnaturally strong – just the way your CLNC^® business should be. It’s also flexible and will bend and flex a long way before breaking – just like your attorney-clients expect you to perform.

If its base grows weak and it begins to lean, it will rest against other bamboo and continue to grow, rather than become uprooted. A stand of bamboo supports each other just as CLNC^® consultants do when networking and subcontracting through the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants. There’s also safety in numbers as a forest of bamboo exhibits as it blocks the wildest wind. Rather than break in the face of a strong force, it bends and twists, reactively dealing with changes in weather and wind direction. After Hurricane Ike, Houston was covered with downed trees and broken tree limbs but almost no bamboo stalks lay in our yard. When was the last time you networked, collaborated and masterminded with three to five Certified Legal Nurse Consultants?

Though strong, bamboo is also thin and lightweight. It reminds us to keep our CLNC^® businesses fast and agile – not becoming lumbering dinosaurs or institutionalized like hospitals. Bamboo thrives by co-existing with other plants just like your CLNC^® business can thrive as you co-exist with other CLNC^® consultants in the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants Association. In my backyard, some stalks of my bamboo have grown taller than my house and do so by growing through a 50-year-old oak tree that separates my home from my neighbor’s. I like to think that each are helping support the other, like we all do in our legal nurse consulting businesses but I also remember that like businesses, are in competition. The bamboo is in competition with the oak for the water and nutrient resources in the ground. After more than 15 years, both seem to be doing quite well together.

Bamboo can also be used for many things. Once hollowed out, I’ve seen it used in the place of pipe. Its shoots can be eaten. An enterprising bird has created a nest at a location where four stalks come together high in the air (it seems a bit precarious to me). In Asia, I’ve seen bamboo used as construction scaffolding. How many other plants or trees can you use for that? In Hawaii, I’ve hiked through a bamboo forest that was so thick I almost needed a flashlight in mid-day to find my way along the trail. In Japan, bamboo is sometimes treated with reverence and there are entire parks dedicated to its beauty.

This morning, there was an unnatural stillness outside my windows. There was not even the slightest trace of a breeze and the bamboo looked like a still-life or black and white photo in the early light. I can’t wait to see what it looks like this evening.

Success Is Inside!

Welcome all Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who are taking the stage for legendary CLNC^® success in Nashville for the 2010 NACLNC^® Conference. I hope you’re as thrilled as I am about this year’s show-stopping performances by the CLNC^® Pros, keynote speaker, Genevieve Bos and Tom’s comedy.

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!