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.
 

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.

Today’s professional athletes cross-train to reach their next level of success. For example, a professional football player doesn’t just do football drills – he lifts weights and might even practice yoga or ballet, all with the intention of performing better on the football field.

Cross-training can create synergistic benefits, and this just might be a strategy for taking your CLNC^® business to its next level. Choose a category, preferably one you are weak in or typically avoid altogether, and ask yourself how your CLNC^® business could benefit from expanding that category. It might be technology (if you find yourself struggling to do more than read your email), public speaking (if you’d rather be in the coffin than give the eulogy) or self-development (if you find yourself constantly obsessing over everything that is wrong with your life).

Now spend the next three months cross-training in that category and watch your CLNC^® business soar!

Success Is Inside!

P.S. Comment and share where you need to cross-train and when you’ll start.
 

This weekend I am privileged to be presenting the Women Embracing Leadership events with Stedman Graham. I confess that when I was a young nurse, “leadership” was a word that didn’t get my juices going. It was too traditional and boring for this renegade nurse who didn’t fit in an institutional hospital environment.

Since then, I have learned that leadership is one of the most provocative and exciting words in the dictionary because it applies to how we show up in every situation every second of the day. For some of us, leadership does involve managing others and being in charge of a situation, but leadership first and foremost is about leading ourselves.

Success or failure is the result of thousands of decisions, actions and reactions. Almost every time I mentor a student who is struggling, that student has failed to be a leader in one or more of those decisions, actions and reactions.

Our leadership is tested and challenged not only when things go our way, but also when they don’t. Commit to lead yourself in the most consistent and congruent way each and every day. When you do, you open yourself up to opportunities beyond your imagination.

Lead yourself and CLNC^® success will be yours.

Success Is Inside!

We all know the person whose life would be totally different and of course much better if only “Y” had happened instead of “X.” The mantra never changes. “If Y had happened, then I could have done X” or “If only W had done Z, then my life would be different” or “If Q was different, I’d be different” and, my personal favorite, “If only Y had happened, I’d be happy or successful or married,” or whatever.

What successful people, especially successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, do is live in the world of “what next”, not in the world of “what if”. If an attorney-prospect says “I’m interested, let’s stay in touch”, the CLNC^® consultant knows what’s next and does just that. The CLNC^® consultant doesn’t go into the space of “If the attorney had just given me the case today, I’d be on my way to quitting my job at the hospital.”

The first attorney-prospect I connected with asked me to call him two weeks later because he was preparing for trial. I waited two weeks and called, but he never returned my call. I called again; he still didn’t return my call. I called a fourth time and on that day he took the call. The rest is my legal nurse consulting history. It wasn’t easy during those waiting periods, but I stayed out of the “what if” space and just continued to move in the “what’s next” space. I didn’t allow “If he didn’t have that trial then…” or “If he’d just returned my phone call then…”; if I had, I predict I never would have made the fourth call and I wouldn’t be where I am today.

The only “what ifs” in your life and your legal nurse consulting business should be the “what if” questions you ask yourself about what you should be doing at this very moment.

• What if I make five sales calls right now?
• What if I practice my interview questions before I meet with that attorney-prospect?
• What if I call that attorney-client back right now?
• What if I turn off that TV and turn on my commitment to taking action on my legal nurse consulting business?

Now it’s my turn to ask you a “what if” question. What if you did all these things you know you’re supposed to do? Answer: Hmmm.

Success Is Inside!

Gina D’Angelo, RN, BSN, MBA, NHA, CLNC shares how, after getting in front of 60 attorneys at a medical-malpractice conference, her CLNC^® business has grown so much she’s now using CLNC^® subcontractors to keep up!

Watch and learn her secrets to CLNC^® success.

Congratulations, Gina!

Success Is Inside!

Thanks to all the CLNC® consultants who attended the 2011 National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants Conference Cruise. I so loved hearing how much you learned from our speakers and seeing you networking with fellow CLNC® pirates. It was a blast partying with you and spending a week together. I loved hearing your CLNC® Success Stories and am so energized by them.

Here are a few tips to keep you going on the path to your goals:

1. Reconnect with your attorney-clients by sending a note to let them know you’ve attended the NACLNC^® Conference for additional education and to renew your CLNC^® Certification. Remind them that this is your way to better serve them and their clients.
2. Send a news release to your community newspaper announcing your completion of this advanced Certified Legal Nurse Consultant training and renewal of your CLNC^® Certification.
3. Continue your success: mark your calendar and sign up now for the
   2013 NACLNC^® Conference where you can join us for a 7-Day Weekend March 2-9, 2013 sailing the Western Caribbean.

Enjoy the NACLNC^® Conference photo gallery and the video of the CLNC^® cheerleading contest (each group had five minutes to create, choreograph and practice their cheer).

Thanks for helping to make the NACLNC^® Conference the amazing event that it was. I’ll see you in 2013 aboard the Oasis of the Seas for the next NACLNC^® Conference. Can’t wait to cruise the rest of the Caribbean with you.

Success Is Inside!

I recently saw Cirque du Soleil’s show Ovo. They do everything so well – costumes, acrobatics, acts, clowns and music. I always come away awed at their creativity. In Ovo the aerial acrobatics surpassed anything I’ve ever seen.

The act is the biggest of its kind that Cirque du Soleil has ever done and the distances the performers cover are some of the most difficult in the world. It opens with three very muscular, costumed men standing on a center platform suspended high in the air near the middle top of their “Grand Chapiteau” tent. On opposite sides of the middle platform, and equally high, there were more platforms, each of which held three additional men for a total of nine. Hanging beneath each of the side platforms was a metal swing onto which one of the very muscular men quickly climbed down and began swinging back and forth.

All of this is taking place much higher in the air than I’d ever willingly climb. In fact, to get to these platforms the men had to go up small rope ladders that twisted and turned as they climbed. That climb alone would have scared me half to death!

The act quickly continued with the men on the swings being joined by another, slightly smaller but still muscular (I notice these things) man. The bigger man started swinging harder and harder to the point that it seemed the swing was about to go all the way around. At the apogee of the frontward movement, the smaller man suddenly leapt into the air, sailing toward the men on the center platform. He twisted in the air like a high diver completing at least one twisting somersault, landing feet-first in a basket formed by the interlinked hands of two of the men waiting there for him.

The man on the swing would build his momentum again, this time hanging upside down from the swing by his ankles and, just before he reached the closest point in his arc to the platform, the flying man would leap (with a boost from the “catchers”) out into space and catch the hands of the man on the swing. I held my breath with each leap of faith.

Soon, four flying men were taking turns launching themselves into space and landing on that tiny center platform. The audience would hold their breath while the men were in the air and after each accomplishment we’d cheer and clap at their daring.

The acrobats seemed to take this as a stimulus to challenge each other to attempt more and more daring feats of twisting, turning aerial acrobatics. The combination of strength, physical ability, control over their bodies, derring-do and apparent lack of fear was mind boggling and I was clapping and cheering just a loudly as everyone else.

Suddenly, one of the acrobats mistimed his jump and missed the outstretched hands of the man on the swing by what must have been only inches. We all gasped as he fell into the safety net far below. He landed, leaped up (just like a guy) and was climbing back up the rope ladder as quickly as he could.

As he climbed, the audience erupted into louder shouts and cheers, not just for the audacity of what he attempted, but for the fact that he went right back up to do it again.

In your legal nurse consulting business, are you celebrating or cheering only your successes? Or, do you take the time to celebrate going for what you want, regardless of the outcome? In business, sports and acrobatics there is no 100% success rate, no guarantee that each time you’ll meet with perfect results.

I’m always one for celebrating and remembering encores of past successes. Likewise, it’s important to reward yourself for trying something daring like speaking at a legal conference, or even less than daring like making cold-calls to attorney-prospects or offering a new CLNC^® service to an existing attorney-client.

If you only celebrate success, you’ll certainly have plenty of rewards, but remember to also acknowledge your failures because without attempts you’ll never have successes. Get out today and take your best shot. If you step out to fly and instead tumble to the ground, celebrate anyway!

The more you celebrate the unsuccessful attempts, the more you are wired for stepping out without reservation. You have to step out before you can fly high as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. Celebrate stepping out today and every day.

Success Is Inside!

Last week my attorney-client invited me to meet a potential plaintiff at the office of a referring attorney. He needed to catch a flight immediately after this meeting, so we were on a tight schedule. I offered to drive us to the meeting and take him to the airport afterwards, giving me an opportunity to have his undivided attention for a period of time.

This particular attorney-client was my “break-in” client, and the one for whom I still do more than 90% of my work. He has been a very successful attorney in a prominent plaintiff firm for about 20 years, winning big awards for his clients. However, I was growing frustrated with what I felt was his tunnel vision when it came to damages in his cases. I wasn’t sure he was really reading my reports or just picking out what he wanted to see.

As a result, I believed he was missing an opportunity for bigger awards for his clients. During the ride I honestly discussed this, using medical issues from his cases on which I am presently working. He was “blown away” with some of the issues I presented, to which I responded, “Did you not read my report?” At the meeting with the potential plaintiff and referring attorney, my attorney-client introduced me as his nurse expert and “the brains of the team!”

Guest Blogger Profile

Annmarie Johnson, RN, BSN, CLNC owns and operates Bucks Medical-Legal Consulting. She has been a nurse for 26 years, 24 specializing in critical care. Annmarie’s CLNC^® business specializes in construction accidents and products liability.

Today is such an exciting day! I received four copies of the Korean translation of my book Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn’t Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now. The cover is so different from any of the other translations of the book and seeing a new cover is one of the most fun things about the foreign translations.

This means that over 24,000,000 women (not just legal nurse consultants) in South Korea alone can access the power of Inside Every Woman. The South and North share a common language and an unheard-of literacy rate in excess of 96%. If my book makes it across the 38^th Parallel, 11,000,000 North Korean women could read it and maybe shake things up some!

Here’s the new Korean cover along with the Chinese, Polish (first and second editions), Vietnamese, Indonesian and American covers. Comment and tell me which is your favorite.

	Korean
Chinese	Polish, 1st Edition	Polish, 2nd Edition
Vietnamese	Indonesian	English/American

Success Is Inside!